GULF SHORES, Ala. – David Walter likes what he’s been hearing about the committee being formed by the Alabama Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce called Project Reefmaker.

The committee is looking to raise almost $500,000 to take a cargo ship Walter bought and sink it off the coast of Alabama for an artificial reef. The committee is still seeking members and will meet at the chamber office at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Anyone interested in being on the committee should contact the chamber 251-968-7221 or by e-mail at president@alagulfcoastchamber.com. Registration is required.

“I think they’re going to pull it off,” Walter said. “Everybody was enthusiastic about it and said that would be something that they wanted for this community and they felt it would be an asset. It was pretty overwhelming.”

Walter operates Walter Marine and Reefmaker just west of the Foley Beach Express on Canal Road in Orange Beach. Recently he towed a 271-foot former cargo ship from Miami and docked at his place on the Intracoastal Waterway.

He bought the ship and had it cleaned with hopes of selling it to someone to sink as an offshore reef.

“I thought I was just bring the ship in and just put it alongside the bank there as part of my inventory,” he said. “I would go approach different states and governments and ask them if they would be interested in deploying it as a reef. I don’t really see a problem selling it.”

But he’d prefer it stay closer to home.

“Alabama was my first choice although I didn’t think I’d get any response at all because Alabama has never spent any out-of-pocket money are artificial reefs,” he said.

Until now. The state has offered up the first $100,000 to deploy the reef if the rest of the $500,000 for the operation can be raised locally.

Leonard Kaiser of Kaiser Realty set a preliminary meeting for interested parties in June and another one later for the general public.

Ed Rodriguez, president and CEO of the chamber, latched onto the idea of keeping the ship in Alabama waters and the idea for the committee was formed.

“As long as we raise it by August of 2013 that $100,000 will be there,” Rodriguez said. “We want to do it a lot sooner than that.”

Vince Lucido of Krebs Engineering and a member of the chamber board has been named chairman of the committee.

“We’re trying to get money from the city, a couple of cities,” Lucido said. “We’re trying to see if there’s money left from BP. We’re going to look at every avenue that we’ve got. We’ve had a lot of interest.

"The positive economic impact of a local diving attraction such as this will place the Alabama Gulf Coast as a ‘must see’ diving destination.”

Rodriguez said he’s found studies on the internet about the impact of artificial reefs on local economies in south Florida.

“They did a study that demonstrated that for every dollar spent on the acquisition and sinking of a reef, $131 were returned to the community,” he said. “You’re not talking about something that’s going to benefit just one business or two businesses. It’s going to benefit everybody.”

The ship created quite a buzz as it made its way into Mobile Bay and up the canal to its resting place in Orange Beach.

“When I came into the intracoastal canal the banks were lined with hundreds of people cheering and waving me on,” Walter said. “I was pretty amazed at that. I’ll never underestimate the power of the social media again. There were more people there than there were for the Mardi Gras parade.”