‘Absolutely breathtaking’: Memorial constructed for captain who died in diving accident
The Captain Chris Chong Memorial Reef has settled into place 25 nautical miles east-southeast of the Murrells Inlet Sea Buoy, and Travis Lane couldn’t be happier with the tribute to his late friend.
Chong was a popular captain and avid diver out of Express Watersports in Murrells Inlet before he tragically passed away in a diving accident on Dec. 26, 2017.
On May 1, a fitting memorial to Chong was sunk within the parameters of the Bill Perry Jr. Artificial Reef site in the form of the tugboat J.P. McCallister, a massive 103-foot vessel that was prepared for placement on the reef with the diving community in mind.
“It’s really the perfect kind of memorial for Chris,” said Lane, a classmate at Coastal Carolina University and roommate of Chong’s for five years before his death. “Putting this immense structure there, that will change the way people see this site for diving. The cool thing about it is, with this wreck we tried to cut out (areas) so divers can dive inside. On a lot of our wrecks, divers don’t really have that opportunity to go in the little nooks and crannies.”
Lane has a vision for the future of his buddy’s reef, with plans to tie rope lines from the tugboat to other structure on the site.
The Bill Perry Jr. Reef site has had a tremendous amount of large structure placed on it over the years including four landing crafts, a shrimp boat, a tugboat, New York City subway cars, Armored Personnel Carriers and shipping containers.
“We want to put a line system in, connecting the tugboat with what ‘s already there,” said Lane, a 2017 graduate of CCU. “Kind of make it into a diving playground with multiple areas to dive on one site.”
Lane noted that 12 reef balls were dropped along with the tugboat, with CCU’s scuba diving club, Aqua League, instrumental in that endeavor.
Lane was among a group of seven divers who dove the site to check out Chong’s reef on Monday, just five days after the tugboat and reef balls were dropped.
“We dove on it to see how it landed, which direction it was facing, look for any hazards,” said Lane. “I was blown away, with it only being sunk a week ago, the amount of fish and life that was already on that wreck. The entire wreck was totally immersed by these baitfish. It was absolutely breathtaking. It is huge.”
Lane observed Spanish mackerel, amberjack and barracuda, along with the massive amount of baitfish, on the dive.
Lane took the opportunity to head to the front of the tug’s wheelhouse to have a photo taken with a plaque naming the wreck in Chong’s honor.
“For it to be named after Chris is very fitting,” said Lane. “He made this (area) his home years ago and he had been out on water ever since. It will be interesting to see what is on (the reef) in years to come, it’s going to be teeming with life.”
S.C. Governor’s Cup Billfishing Series
The 2019 South Carolina Governor’s Cup Billfishing Series got underway Thursday with the Bohicket Marina Invitational Billfish Tournament on John’s Island.
After two days of fishing, the field of 33 boats has found billfish action to be very slow.
Eight boats fished on Thursday, and no billfish were landed or released.
On Friday, 26 of the 33 boats fished with only one sailfish being released, by Rascal at 2:13 p.m. Game On hooked up with but lost a blue marlin estimated to be in the 300-400 pound range, but that has been it.
“The water looks good, there’s a lot of scattered sargassum, good temp breaks, they’re just not biting,” said Amy Dukes, coordinator of the series for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. “We’ve seen blues, sails and whites but we’ve only had the two hookups. It’s exceptionally low.”
Dukes notes 32 of the 33 boats will be fishing on Saturday, the final day of fishing in the tournament.
“We’re hoping tomorrow things kind of align,” said Dukes. “We’re not releasing many fish and its depressing all of us.”
This story was originally published May 10, 2019 at 5:42 PM.