Swimming In and Around the Mighty Mo

Get ready and suit up for a delightful diving experience off Sanibel Island in the Gulf of America. What, you don’t have a wetsuit, flippers, mask, and scuba BCD, tank, and regulator? Not even a snorkel? What, you don’t dive? Worry not! You can stay dry, dive virtually, and still have a delightful experience at the USS Mohawk CGC Aquarium at the IMAG History & Science Center.

That’s right. No equipment necessary. No masking. No flipping. No snorkeling. Come, visit, and enjoy a replica model of the USS Mohawk and all the marine life that call it their home in a fascinating, 15-foot, 3,200-gallon, saltwater aquarium tank. Curiously, you might ask, “What is the USS Mohawk CGC or, as we like to call it, the “Mighty Mo” and why is there a replica of this ship in an aquarium?”

Launched in 1934, the USS Mohawk CGC is a 165-foot length, 36-foot beam, World War II Coast Guard cutter, that was scuttled on July 2, 2012, to create an artificial reef as well as a veterans memorial: officially, U.S.S. Mohawk CGC Veterans Memorial Reef. The replica of the Mighty Mo in the aquarium serves as a memorial too. Located about 30 miles off the coast of Sanibel Island / Fort Myers, Florida, the cutter rests upright at a depth of 90 feet with its bow facing East, providing a popular diving spot with the primary coordinates located at N 26 33.075′, W 82 43.481′ if you, indeed, prefer a delightful diving experience.

The USS Mohawk was first assigned patrol and general icebreaking duties on the Hudson and Delaware Rivers. At the outbreak of World War II, she was stationed at Cape May, New Jersey, and directed to serve as part of the naval forces of the United States. Assigned to North Atlantic escort operations with the Greenland Patrol for the entire war, the USS Mohawk and other ships, escorted troop and supply ships across the Atlantic Ocean. She launched 14 attacks against submarines between August 1942 and April 1945 in the Battle of the Atlantic.

After the war, the USS Mohawk was placed “in reserve, in commission” status at Cape May and a short while later she was decommissioned, placed in storage at the Coast Guard Yard, and later sold to the Delaware Bay and River Pilots’ Association as a pilot boat in 1948. In 1984, the USS Mohawk was purchased by Charles Weymouth of Delaware for $1.00 and repaired by a group of volunteers to become the USCG Mohawk Museum in 1986. The museum closed however in the late 1990s, and the USS Mohawk was then moved to Staten Island, New York.

Sometime thereafter, Frans Boetes, then president of the USS Mohawk CGC Memorial Museum, founded by the Miami-Dade Historical Maritime Museum, rescued the ship from a scrap yard, had some repairs performed, and then had her towed from New York to Miami and later to Key West and berthed at the Truman Waterfront. Due to a lack of funds at the museum, a decision was made to sink the USS Mohawk as an artificial reef and veterans memorial. In May 2012, the USS Mohawk CGC was brought to port at Fort Myers Beach, Florida, cleaned, and readied to be scuttled. On July 2, 2012, the Mighty Mo was dedicated and sunk. The USS Mohawk was the first dedicated veterans memorial military ship reef in the United States of America.

In honor of the USS Mohawk CGC, the IMAG History & Science Center had a replica model created for its 3,200-gallon, saltwater aquarium tank which was manufactured by the Acrylic Tank Manufacturing company of Las Vegas, Nevada, and featured on Animal Planet television’s reality show, “Tanked” (season 10, episode 7, called “Imaginarium Aquarium” which originally aired on June 10, 2016).

In addition to its memorable and unique naval history, the USS Mohawk CGC Aquarium offers guests an exciting show of marine life, a swimming spectacle of colors that illuminate the tank. In and around the Mighty Mo, as it is resting on the sandy bottom of the aquarium, there is this vibrant, radiant, colorful display of fishes, floating and flowing, swimming and swooping, gliding gently in their smooth, effortless performance. They see us nearing the tank, and so the prismatic pageant begins.

There are the Spanish Hogfish (Bodianus rufus) swirling about to the left in their striking colors with a bright yellow lower body and tail with a contrasting royal purple or deep blue upper body and head. And swimming from the right, there are the Porkfish (Anisotremus virginicus) with their distinctive markings of alternating yellow and silver stripes and black bars that run diagonally over their eye and from the front of the dorsal fin to the base of the pectoral fin as well as their bright yellow fins. And right about now, a beautiful Queen Anglefish (Holacanthus ciliaris) gracefully glides by flaunting her elegant, yellow-tipped blue-green scales and exquisite bright yellow tail. She stops and hoovers a moment as if say, “Who amongst us is the most elegant and magnificent?”

And now, from around the coral formation, there are the Sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus) feeling left out, almost demanding our attention to their beauty with a silverish to greenish yellow against a lovely olive color on their upper bodies and, quite distinctive, markings along their flanks of five or six dark vertical stripes. Not to be out done by the others, along comes the Bluestriped Grunt (Haemulon sciurus) with their overall yellow to yellow-orange colors broken by thin, horizontal neon blue stripes. Moreover, they distinctly have an arched blue stripe under each eye, a dark brown or black tail and dorsal fin. But wait. Here come a few show-offs, some Squirrelfish (Holocentrus adscensionis) which are predominantly red with silver-white or gold- orange stripes. And then suddenly, we spot something squirming about inside the navigational bridge deck of the Mighty Mo. Emerging through the side is a Zebra Moray Eel (Gymnomuraena zebra), about four feet long, striped in, you guessed it, black and white (actually dark brown to black stripes).

And still, there is more to take in. Complementing our visit to the aquarium, there is a hands-on interactive display that provides additional history, information, and photographs of the USS Mohawk as well as a program for a “virtual dive” to the memorial reef. What’s more, the original “Tanked” episode, “Imaginarium Aquarium,” from concept and creation to delivery and installation of this huge, massive aquarium tank, is also available to watch; it is about 20 minutes long, very interesting, and fun.

So, whether you want 92 years of history or 32 hundred gallons of aquarium, whether you want to learn about the ship and the reef or just visit with the fishes, come, enjoy the USS Mohawk CGC Aquarium. Snorkel on over to the IMAG History & Science Center at 2000 Cranford Avenue, Fort Myers, Fl 33916. For more information, 239-243-0043 or theIMAG.org. The IMAG is open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Sunday from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM, and closed Tuesday.