Slashdot Mirror
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."
they could probably make 88mph o_o what has science done?!
I actually read this article earlier today (they're coming for my slashdot credibility card!) and it mentioned the amount of asbestos and other materials in the cars. Does anyone know how that comes into play in a marine environment?
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
With an eye on recycling materials and reducing construction costs for storage cellars, some wineries in northern Mexico have opted for this great idea:
Dig a deep trench, place old RR cars inside, then fill the trench up again with dirt. And there it is, a cave build like a Lego. A little bit of retrofitting may be necessary, especially where car doors meet, but still, you can save a ton of money in this fashion.
Surely, not only Mexican wineries are using the same technique.
Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty
Hoopla, I tried for ten minutes find anything about the negative impacts of artificial reefs, using Google Scholar ( http://scholar.google.com/ ).
I used "artificial" and "reefs" in combinations with words like "bioaccumulation", "pcb", "tyres", "pollutants", "chemicals", etc.
Surprisingly, I only found statements like "needs more research", "no measurable effect" and no-brainers like that.
Could it be that I missed those true alarmist reports I guessed would be there?! One read like:
http://www.flseagrant.org/program_areas/ecosystem_health/artificial_reefs/index.htm#21
"The oil ash and control reefs were constructed with the aid of divers in just one day, and monitoring of the reefs was carried out for one year. Leaching of trace metals from the blocks was extremely slow, and only limited instances of enhanced bioaccumulation of metals were observed. However, pressure from environmental groups led the electric power industry and the State of Florida to discontinue construction of artificial reefs from stabilized waste material."
I don't want to play this in the hands of waste mongers, but hope some could actually find some more conclusive results.
Don't get me wrong. Play it safe, please.
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A very pretty picture is painted for what amounts to environmental vandalism. (paraphrasing): "We are creating a tropical paradise, where diversity parallels that of the Galapagos Islands. The majestic undersea garden will support myriad species, the colours and the life will rival any natural environment, and will, in fact, surpass anything that nature could create. We are dumping this waste in the ocean for the common good. The beautiful seaweed will dance a serenade, attracting fishes and tourists alike. Because the trash increases the potential habitats (and micro-climates), species diversity must increase--niche species which would otherwise have difficultly surviving will flourish.
Yes, dumping rubbish is the sea is a Good Idea(TM). The secret is out!
Wouldn't make much of a difference either way to global warming.
To the degree it increases marine biomass, it's just as effective as increasing any OTHER biomass for capyuring CO2. So in theory it would decrease global warming.
Much too small an effect to be measurable.
It -has- been suggested that spreading iron on the ocean in areas where lack of iron is the limiter on plant-growth would allow much more plants to grow and thus capture a lot of CO2. I think the biggest uncertanity there was for how -long- the CO2 would stay out of the atmosphere.
If a significant fraction of the dead plants sink, retention would be good, hundreds of years at the very least. If most of them decompose near the surface and the CO2 is released from the water, there wouldn't be much benefit.
"You call that making a reef? This is how you make a reef."
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
We've also been leaving large steel objects on the ocean floor for quite some time (>100 years), both accidentally and deliberately . These are the least of our concerns when talking about ocean pollution. If you actually want to do something about the ocean start talking about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, because that's far more harmful to marine life then a few sunken subway cars or ships that actually provide shelter for fish and a surface for coral to grow on.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Artificial reefs have not been a universal success. The State of Florida is spending millions to clean up dumped tires from the Osborne Reef.
Statesman
This reminds me of the people that complain about oil rigs in the environment and yet they create some of the best fishing areas around for the same reason. The rigs become a reef environment.
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
http://www.divemaster.ca/boeing/
Prior to the sinking it went through an extensive environmental cleanup until eventually all that was left was metal.
It seems that if you create a man made reef and then run low voltage electricity through it coral will grow 5-10 times faster.
When I honeymooned in Bali we went snorkeling around these structures. They seemed perfectly safe and the corals were amazing. The coral growth on the structures seemed far more prolific than that on the ocean bottom.
You would think that recycling the metals, like stainless steel would, I don't know... be beneficial? Or is the city just dumping taxpayer and straphanger cash money out at sea?