Group to sink NYC subway cars off Ocean City for fish habitat

By Christine Cullen
Staff Writer ––––––––––

 If the Ocean City Reef Foundation has its way, the resort will become the place where New York City subway cars come to die and the first watery funeral is scheduled for next week.

After striking a deal with New York City to buy subway cars that have been taken out of commission, the group plans to sink the cars to create an artificial reef. A shipment of 42 cars will make its way by barge from the Big Apple next week and are expected to arrive outside Ocean City Tuesday morning.

“We went up to New York on Friday and inspected our first load of them. These cars were on the subway as recently as two weeks ago,” Greg Hall, president of the Reef Foundation, said.

The subway cars will be sunk at the Jackspot, approximately 19 miles southeast of the resort. A media boat will be on hand to document the occasion. Fish and other marine life will use the cars to create a new home within the sunken metal frame, 80 feet below the surface.

Subway cars, old ships or other materials that create artificial reefs cannot be dumped into the ocean just anywhere. The foundation has permits for about seven locations near Ocean City that have been approved by the Army Corps of Engineers as acceptable sites for artificial reefs.

The cost of this initial shipment of subway cars, $600 per car or approximately $25,000 per shipment, was donated by Jack Power, an avid fisherman who keeps his boat at the Sunset Marina in West Ocean City.

There have been around 600 subway cars set aside for the foundation, and Hall said enough money has already been raised entirely through donations and fundraisers to pay for at least two more shipments. This is an ongoing project, he said, and it could take years before all the subway cars are purchased and sunk to make reefs.

“Originally, we turned them down about 10 years ago because of environmental issues. Since then, they’ve turned out to be OK and a good habitat,” Hall said of the subway cars.

The foundation, a non-profit organization created in 1997, has created numerous artificial reefs off the Ocean City shore using items as varied as ships, Army tanks, barges, radio towers, concrete and even guns.

Originally published May 9, 2008

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