Incredible power of Tropical Storm Nate changes Kittiwake wreck forever

The USS Kittiwake is one of the best-known wreck dives in the Caribbean, if not the world. Its convenient location, just off Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman, and shallow depths make it a popular site among scuba divers as well as snorkelers and freedivers. Brent and Elsa pictured in this video traveled to Grand Cayman in 2017 for a dive vacation and enjoyed diving the then upright wreck.Show more

The USS Kittiwake is a Chanticleer-class submarine rescue ship that served as an Auxiliary Submarine Rescue vessel (ASR-13) with the 6th Submarine Squadron. On January 5, 2011 - a decade after the Cayman Island Tourism Association first dreamed of adding a new wreck - the Kittiwake finally sank upright beneath the waves off the coast of Grand Cayman and a new artificial reef was born.

When Tropical Storm Nate hit Grand Cayman October 6,2017, the Kittiwake wreck would be changed forever. On October 9, divers discovered that the wreck had been toppled on its port side. After extensive inspections of near by reefs as well as the integrity of the wreck, it was once again opened to recreational divers. Some may have thought this incident would ruin the artificial reef for divers, but many see it as a completely new wreck.