Tenneco Towers

At the southernmost point of the county, sunk in 1985 by the Tenneco Oil Company, the decommissioned oil platform Tenneco was hauled from the Gulf of Mexico on a massive barge and deployed in three sections, each one a little deeper than the other, in a straight east-west line.

Watching the sinking, replete with a small compliment of cranes, tenders and boats from all kinds of imaginable government agency, took too long to hold the attention of cheering crowds, so the “Towers” went down with little fanfare or ceremony. However, once they were on the bottom, they became on of the best dive sites in the Southeastern United States. Without hulls, or bulkheads, the skeletal structures rose off the sea floor and provided huge areas of hard substrate for corals to 'grab' onto, yet at the same time allowed the tides and currents to flow through and around every strut and support beam and promoted almost instant growth.

Home to schools of jacks and other good sized fish, they are often visited by pelagic, or open ocean, fish, large schooling Tarpon, and occasionally sharks.The structure has been hailed as the best fish attracting device ever deployed in the state. Hurricane Andrew was not kind to the Tenneco Towers, it took one of the platform sections and drug it completely away from the site and if it’s whereabouts are known, it is not on any commercial chart, nor is it visited by any divers, the fish have that one all to themselves. The other two sections were pushed together, almost leaning on each other and outside of looking disheveled, they continue to do an excellent job attracting fish and delighting the diver. If you own an underwater camera, bring it, otherwise you will probably wind up kicking yourself. Most of the 'good stuff' goes down to around 90' and it is a superb night dive. The colors here are fantastic, including the yellow cup corals, and the red encrusting coral.