{"id":916053,"date":"2026-10-04T17:34:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T17:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916053\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T17:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T17:34:37","slug":"its-bigger-than-central-park-is-24-metres-down-in-the-ocean-and-contains-hundreds-of-subway-cars-and-a-few-tanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916053\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s bigger than Central Park, is 24 metres down in the ocean \u2013 and contains hundreds of subway cars \u2013 and a few tanks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bearing in mind that there could be around\u00a0three million<\/a>\u00a0sunken vessels lurking at the bottom of the ocean, it makes sense that shipwrecks are the most common type of artificial reef.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But boats aren\u2019t the only things that have been used to create new habitats. There are even decommissioned subway carriages beneath the waves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Possibly the most famous of these submerged subway reefs is Redbird Reef. It\u2019s around 24 metres deep off the coast of Slaughter Beach, Delaware.<\/p>\n

The creation of Redbird Reef began in 1996 as part of a wider programme using recycled materials to create new habitats across several artificial reef sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese materials include more than two million tons of rock, 100,000 tons of concrete, 86 tanks and armoured personnel carriers, upwards of 1,350 retired subway cars and 32 retired vessels ranging from 40 to 653 feet [12 to 199 metres] long,\u201d says the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC<\/a>) on its website.<\/p>\n

The New York subway cars are the reef\u2019s star attraction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hundreds of retired Redbird subway carriages \u2013 which lend their name to the reef \u2013 were scuttled, after any hazardous materials, doors and windowpanes were removed. More were sunk in other areas of the Delaware artificial reef programme and beyond in other states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all that\u2019s down there.\u00a0Tugboats<\/a>, trawlers, barges, warships and a cruise ship are all spending their retirement as part of the area\u2019s\u00a0artificial reefs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before the creation of the Delaware Artificial Reef Programme, the area was largely made up of sandy seabed. Now, the reef structures attract lots of fishes including sea bass, tautog,\u00a0triggerfish<\/a>, flounder,\u00a0tuna<\/a>\u00a0and even\u00a0sharks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the 2023\u20134\u00a0Delaware Reef Guide<\/a>, the artificial reef programme brings around six million US dollars into the local economy each year thanks to the fishing and diving opportunities it creates.<\/p>\n

Despite Redbird Reef\u2019s fame, not everyone is fully convinced by its positive environmental impact. A 2016\u00a0AGU<\/a>\u00a0paper studied how storms have impacted the structures and found that 2012\u2019s superstorm Sandy damaged or destroyed eight subway cars while storm Jonas \u201crotated a previously static 47m long Navy barge nearly 60 degrees\u201d in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fragments from damaged structures can become problematic. \u201cOnce destroyed or collapsed by waves the subway cars go from providing positive structural relief and thus beneficial habitat above the surrounding seabed to being reduced to scattered low relief marine debris,\u201d write the study authors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a \u201ccautionary tale\u201d, they say, reminding people to carefully consider the materials they use to create artificial reefs and how they might be impacted by currents, waves and storms.<\/p>\n

Famously, this is something that wasn\u2019t fully considered when the\u00a0Osborne Reef<\/a>\u00a0was created in Florida in the 1970s. The project was supposed to help recycle disused tyres but ended up as an environmental catastrophe. Decades later, cleanup projects are still underway. A stark reminder of the importance of proper research and planning before putting things into the ocean, even if the act is well-intentioned!\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bearing in mind that there could be around\u00a0three million\u00a0sunken vessels lurking at the bottom of the ocean, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-916053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}