Gibraltar Schedules Tug Cyclone as New 20-Metre Artificial Reef

Gibraltar has moved to add another vessel to its long-running artificial-reef network, scheduling the controlled sinking of the tug Cyclone in local waters on October 8, 2026.

An amended Local Notice to Mariners issued by the Gibraltar Port Authority said the tug was intended to be sunk in approximately 20 metres of water. The vessel was expected to stand no more than four metres above the seabed, leaving a minimum depth of roughly 16 metres over the wreck. The notice identified RMS Constructor as the workboat supporting the operation and warned mariners to keep clear while sinking and related survey work took place.

If the deployment was completed as planned, those depths could eventually make Cyclone relevant to experienced recreational divers as well as marine researchers. A 20-metre seabed is within ordinary recreational limits, but a newly placed vessel is not automatically a ready dive site. Divers need confirmed coordinates, charting, structural and environmental clearance, stable orientation, permitted access and local operator guidance before treating any new wreck as open.

The project also extends Gibraltar’s decades-old use of prepared vessels and purpose-built structures to create marine habitat. Artificial wrecks can add hard substrate and shelter on otherwise less complex seabed, but ecological performance must be demonstrated through monitoring rather than assumed from deployment alone. Early surveys should establish the tug’s position and stability, document colonisation and check for residual debris or pollution risks.

Cyclone’s working history and the preparation undertaken before sinking have not yet been detailed in the publicly indexed notice. Those facts will be important both for the vessel’s historical record and for assessing whether the new reef can be responsibly promoted to divers.

For now, Cyclone should be recorded as a planned or newly deployed artificial reef pending official confirmation that the operation occurred and that post-sinking inspections were satisfactory.