Why were old subway cars dropped into the ocean
Interesting Instagram reel from sambentley.
Why were old subway cars dropped into the ocean? At the end of their life, subway cars are usually scrapped and recycled, but New York City had a different idea. Inspired by how shipwrecks become homes to new reefs, they decided to try this with retired subway cars instead! So they cleaned over 2,500 cars, removing things like seats and petroleum products like oil that could pollute the ocean, transported them by barges, and dropped them into the Atlantic ocean to create artificial reefs! And here’s why this actually works. Coral and plants can grow on the hard surfaces of the car, and because invertebrates like blue mussels can latch onto this surface too, these cars can provide 400x more food for nearby fish than a sandy ocean floor alone. Meaning that quiet empty seabeds are transformed into underwater neighborhoods for marine life! Even as the metal rusts away, which is safe for the ocean, the coral remains, helping to kickstart these important ecosystems. What do you think of this idea? Let me know in the comments!
- goodnews #conservation #coralreef #ocean #subway #savethereef