Efforts to scuttle the 520-foot USS Hoyt Vandenberg off Key West as an artificial reef may have to be abandoned due to the credit crunch.

The cost to sink the USS Hoyt Vandenberg on the seabed is now US$8.45 million - 3.9 times higher than the US$2.1 million estimated when the project was proposed in 2001.

Having spent several million dollars cleaning it to make it eco-friendly, those trying to organise the sinking are finding that the banks involved in the financing are getting cold feet. 

The banks - BB&T, First State Bank and Orion - originally offered to invest a combined US$4.6 million toward the scuttling but stopped funding it at $3.2 million.  

Others financing the deal include Monroe County, the city of Key West, the state and the US Maritime Administration, but none of the government agencies have released any money so far.

The vessel is currently docked at Colonna's Shipyard in Virginia.