scubadiving.com — The fishermen won’t be too happy, but local divers in Southern California are gearing up. Five years after the 58‐foot, steel-hulled A.C.E. bait boat went down in a storm off San Clemente, a team from Beach Cities Scuba recently located it and prepared the site for recreational diving. The site was a closely guarded fishing spot until a boat captain received a tip about the wreck’s general location. Now buoyed approximately five miles south of the Dana Point Harbor, the A.C.E. (named after the bait company’s founder Adolphus Charles Everingham) offers divers an opportunity to explore an artificial reef that’s roughly halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. Completely intact and resting on its port side with its mast pointing away from shore, it’s rich with strawberry and white sea plume anemones, and what looks like rust in several areas is a large number of rockfish that have staked their claim on the wreck. Beach Cities Scuba, which started taking divers out last summer, has established a policy prohibiting divers from penetrating or taking anything from the site. “That’s part of our diver briefing,” says owner-operator Hosam Elshenawi. Wanna dive it? Visit beachcitiesscuba.com.
