Old Subway Cars As Artificial Reef

Pickens writes "Hundreds of retired New York City subway cars are being sunk sixteen nautical miles off Delaware's Indian River Inlet and about 80 feet underwater, continuing the transformation of a barren stretch of ocean floor into a bountiful oasis, carpeted in sea grasses, walled thick with blue mussels and sponges, and teeming with black sea bass and tautog. 'They're basically luxury condominiums for fish,' says Jeff Tinsman, artificial reef program manager for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Subway cars are roomy enough to invite certain fish, too heavy to shift easily in storms, and durable enough to avoid throwing off debris for decades. Tinsman particularly favors the newer subway cars with stainless steel on the outside to create reefs. 'We call these the DeLoreans of the deep,' he said. But success comes at a price because other states, seeing Delaware's successes, have started competing for the subway cars, which New York City provides free. 'The secret is out, I guess,' said Michael G. Zacchea, the MTA official in charge of getting rid of New York City's old subway cars."

Comments

Typo

[arotenbe]

Subway cars are roomy enough to invite certain fish, too heavy to shift easily in storms, and durable enough that we won't have to care about them throwing off debris for decades. There, fixed it for you.

Scrap metal value ?

[artg]

I thought scrap metal values had gone insane recently - I know this is a sort of recycling, but I'm surprised the cars aren't worth a lot for the steel.

Re:asbestos

[CannonballHead]

As far as I recall, asbestos is really only dangerous to human lungs because, when "disturbed" in an open air environment, it disperses into rather tiny particles that annoy your lungs rather severely.

I'm not sure entirely what relevance that has to a water environment, except that it seems fish's gills work significantly differently than human lungs.

Re:Oceans need more man made stuff in them!

[Scruffy Dan]

in the previously perfectly fine ocean

The ocean hasn't been previously fine for a very long time now.

Re:Like some new large winery cellars.

[Scruffy Dan]

usually it is those with the most limited resources that come up with those kinds of ideas.

You get more band from copper

[aepervius]

scrap steel metal only very recently became really expansive (within the last two monthes).

look at the fourth column for scrap steel price. See how much it rose in the last 2-3 monthes and over last year.

Re:Somehow this seems TOO convenient

[vbraga]

Due to diffusion, you really shouldn't get pockets of concentrated copper-water. Nature dislikes concentration gradients (Fick's Law of Diffusion).