I didn’t know this, but apparently the sea floor off New Jersey is often compared to a desert. Nature was not as generous to New Jersey when it comes to reefs and wildlife as it was to, say, Mexico, and so the folks there have hit upon a novel solution: build your own reefs. And more, they’ve decided to construct these reefs out of a rather unusual piece of man made stuff: sold subway cars.
I know, this is not a new idea. Artificial reef programs are all over the place. In fact, Lake Erie contains faux reefs made of rubble from Cleveland Stadium, and Texas formed a rigs-to-reefs program that recycles its petroleum platforms. And as was blogged about over at Divester, in May, the 888-foot USS Oriskany, a retired aircraft carrier, was sunk about 24 miles off Florida’s Pensacola Beach in the Gulf of Mexico, creating the world’s largest artificial reef. It’s also been done before in New Jersey. But being that this one is so close to home, I had to post about it. In fact, it is my goal to try to get out there to dive this baby.