AH-WR-0887

F/V Mermentau

Menhaden Fishing Vessel · United States · Lost 2023 · The Gulf of Mexico

A retired menhaden fishing boat that worked the Gulf for over thirty years, sunk off Biloxi in 2023 to create a new Mississippi artificial reef.

Become Captain of Record

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Interpretive Reconstruction, drawn to convey the vessel's era, type and general form. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

F/V Mermentau was a menhaden fishing vessel built in 1988 and operated by Ocean Harvesters out of Moss Point, Mississippi, for more than three decades before retiring in 2020. On July 26, 2023, she was intentionally sunk off the coast of Biloxi alongside her sister vessel F/V G.P. Chauvin, in a joint project of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources and Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks to create new artificial reef habitat.

Vessel

Built: 1988
Builder: Not established
Yard: Not established
Material: Steel
Length: Not established
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: Not established
Propulsion: Not established
Owners: Ocean Harvesters

Loss

Date: July 26, 2023
Cause: Intentional sinking
Location: Offshore Biloxi, Mississippi
Water: Gulf of Mexico
Voyage: Not established
Cargo: Not established
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: Not established
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Not established
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Not established

Position

Coordinates: Not established
Accuracy: Position not established
Nearest: Biloxi, Mississippi
Region: The Gulf of Mexico

Checked government (TARP/THC/BOEM/NOAA/state reef program), museum, academic, and dive-resource sources; found only descriptive loss-location narratives with no published latitude/longitude for the wreck site.