By PAULO SILVESTRE paulo.silvestre@theresidentgroup.com
Four Portuguese Navy warships that have fallen into disuse will be sunk to create the country’s first Underwater Museum off the coast of Praia da Rocha.
The granting of the vessels has received the approval of the Ministry of Defence and the project is expected to attract around 90,000 tourists annually when completed, says Portimão Mayor Manuel da Luz.
The ships, the Almeida Carvalho, the Hermenegildo Capelo, the Oliveira e Carmo and the Zambeze, will be submerged 12 to 15 metres deep and will a create a unique Underwater Museum for divers.
The project is expected to cost 2.5 million euros and take two-and-a-half years to be completed. The first ship, the Oliveira e Carmo, weighting about 1,400 tonnes and measuring 85 feet in length, is expected to be sunk either in November this year or in April 2011. The remaining ships will be sunk at a rate of one every nine months.
The Portuguese Navy project has already received the approval of entities such as the Ministry of Defence, which issued the order to grant the four warships, currently berthed at Alfeite in Lisbon.
Mayor Manuel da Luz added: “The next important steps are to clean the warships of all polluting material, tow them to Portimão and sink them about two miles off the coast, in an area which has already been identified and validated by the environmental authorities.”
Manuel da Luz highlighted the fact that, as well as creating “a unique museum”, the project will allow for the “enhancement of the marine ecosystem” as the ships will become an artificial reef in an area “lacking natural wealth, therefore increasing biodiversity.”
Portimão Museum, recently voted the best of the year by the Council of Europe, will host exhibitions depicting the history of the ships.
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