30 subway cars dropped off Cape May coast

star ledger ^ | 08.25.08 | Brian T. Murray and Wayne Woolley/

[Coleus]

With a tremendous splash and a profound thud, 30 old subway cars were dropped into the ocean off the coast of Cape May this morning, enlarging the nation's most extensive artificial reef system. State officials say the 18-ton cars -- stripped of their windows, wheels, axles and flooring -- will soon become home to a variety of ocean species. "They provide a very good habitat for marine life," said Hugh Carberry, the state Department of Environmental Protection's reef coordinator.

Workers dump New York City subway cars into the ocean off of Cape May on Monday. After a five year moratorium, New Jersey will continue to use subway cars to build up artificial reefs, which provide habitat and homes to marine life.

Today's operation marked the second since March, when the state lifted a controversial five-year moratorium on the use of subway cars for artificial reefs. In the first drop, 44 cars were sunk off Atlantic City. By 2011, some 600 of the decommissioned people-movers will have been deployed along the Jersey Shore. There they will join military tanks, tug boats, telephone cable, concrete blocks and other items that have been dropped since 1984 to establish habitats for fish and other sea creatures that would otherwise steer clear of the open and turbulent Atlantic Ocean floor. Reef programs are underway worldwide to maintain, if not restore, marine life.

The subway cars -- each 60 feet long, 10 feet wide and 11 feet high -- were donated by New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

[Coleus]

click on link for video

[ken21]

did they have union bodies in them?

[shankbear]

Please tell me that Michael Moore was in one of them........please.....make my day.

[NonValueAdded]

We have people combing the neighborhoods looking for scrap to sell. Vacant lots are cleaner than they have ever been. Occasionally some idiot goes for a copper theft in a power company’s substation but that seems to be a self-correcting situation. So why are cities strapped for cash dumping all that money in the ocean?

[Right Wing Assault]

Please tell me that Michael Moore was in one of them..

Sorry, he wouldn't fit inside them. They tried. Also, the blubber probably would make it too buoyant.

[al_c]

Sorry to break the news, but Moore is still alive. Saw him on Larry King a while ago and he was pissed. But y’know ... that’s a good thing. It means things aren’t going well for his party.

[doc1019]

Mayhap riders were aboard … go Tony Soprano! ;-)

[Stonewall Jackson]

Can you just imagine the confusion this is going to cause some future scientists, as they try to figure out how all those subway cars and tanks ended up on the bottom of the ocean.

[Revolting cat!]

Buh bye, Jimmy Hoffa!

[Revolting cat!]

Proves the Darwin theory, they’ll say!

[exit82]

Yes, they’ll think they found Atlantis at last.

[coconutt2000]

When you throw away a banana peel, it is litter, but when you toss a few tons of metal, synthetics, and plastics into the ocean they call it an artificial reef.

When a politician accepts a lunch with a constituent business owner it is called a bribe if he doesn’t report it and he gets run out of town (if he’s a Republican), but when a politician (Democrat) accepts hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes or buys a house at a $300,000 discount because of a crooked real estate deal, it is okay.

I guess Size Does Matter.

[Clay Moore]

So how are those tire reefs working out for them?

[Westlander]

Around my parts, utility poles are being chopped down so the transformer case shatters upon crashing. Then the copper is removed. It’s a Michigan thing.

[xrmusn]

So why are cities strapped for cash...etc...
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
That is what is becoming of ships also. “they” figure it is cheaper to sink them than to sell them for salvage...Couple of years ago they were TOWING ships from Norfolk and other East Coast “graveyards” to Europe to be scrapped, with some of them being ‘returned’ because they weren’t clean enough..I also think the companies doing the salvage were getting them delivered for ‘nothing’....

[Beowulf9]

I just went to Cape May this summer on vacation, don’t you just love the Garden State Parkway? Gorgeous!

I wonder what marine life will inhabit these empty trains below?

And I wonder if the ghost of Blackbeard will ever take a gander at these very strange vessels now on his surf, er turf.

[Foolsgold]

Cut fuel prices Drill 4 oil now

[redstateconfidential]

Off shore Charter Captains in the Gulf swear by 'em!

[USMCPOP]

Subsidized housing for marine critters, who should have no problem finding a place in their own hood...

Meanwhile, we spend money and energy mining and refining metals that might be recycled more economically. Are we completely daft as a nation?

[arasina]

ROFL!

Don’t think the smaller marine life would want to settle in and make Michael Moore their home. They’re scared of whales.