Subway Reefs: Recycling Old Trains As A Habitat for Sea Life

Travel to The Redbird Reef, off the coast of Slaughter Beach, Delaware for a sight to behold, as New York City subway cars serve as artificial reefs for fish. In 2001, the MTA retired its fleet of Redbird subway cars and donated the trains to states on the Atlantic coast. The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, responsible for this program was successfully able to repopulate this area with fish and other marine species, thanks use of these retired cars. In fact, a 400-fold increase in the amount of plankton and small baitfish is drawing in the larger fish at such a rate that it’s a struggle to find more old subway cars to sink. The program has been successful in supporting the web of underwater life and states such as  New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia have “reefed” about 1,000 subway cars.

Video below:

Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control

[via Infrastructurist]