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?!
Asbestos is a real danger to humans because it gets stuck in lungs. Fish, lacking lungs, shouldn't have this problem. Stuff goes *through* the gills, not into and out of them. My experience keeping fish shows that solids regularly pass through the gills of fish in the process of eating.
The asbestos is probably safer down there than anywhere else, I'd guess.
Kid-proof tablet..
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.