TARGET 150128

New York Subway Cars
Create Artificial Reefs

Car Overboard

Along the coast, from Delaware to South Carolina, a subsea network of these colossal vehicles have become home to millions of tiny fish.

New York subway cars are the last thing you'd expect to come across in the vast, harsh expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.

But along the coast - from Delaware to South Carolina - a subsea network of these colossal vehicles has become home to millions of fish.

Now, photographer Stephen Mallon has captured the transformation of ordinary subway cars into exotic artificial reefs in a series of stunning images.

All stacked up

Photographer Stephen Mallon has been able to capture the process of transforming the city's subway cars into artificial coral reefs.

'Seeing these massive mechanisms being tossed into the ocean like a toy in the bathtub is a ping in my heart,' Mr Mallon writes.

'At first I was stunned, the moments of violent recycling, watching the water quickly adapt to its new underwater houses.

Just in

'After being pushed and stacked like a sardine in these subways cars over the past decade, it is nice to see the sardine actually getting one of these as its new steel condo.'

The 'Next Stop Atlantic' project saw Mr Callon capture four 'drops' and two 'load-ups' over a period of three years.

Taking on water

'Seeing these massive mechanisms being tossed into the ocean like a toy in the bathtub is a ping in my heart,' Mr Mallon said.

'At first I was stunned, the moments of violent recycling, watching the water quickly adapt to its new underwater houses.'

Up and away

The images show the cars being dumped into the ocean using a hydraulic lift like huge anchors, churning waves in their wake.

Going, going,

The 18-ton stainless steel cars - minus wheels, windows and doors - are stacked two-high on a barge where a bucket crane with a specially designed hydraulic lift picks them up one by one.

The images show the cars being dumped into the ocean like huge anchors. While it may appear like an act of pollution, it is in fact the opposite.

Barge in tow

The 'Next Stop Atlantic' project saw the New York photographer capture four 'drops' and two 'load-ups' in a project spanning three years.

Splish splash

After four decades carrying millions of New Yorkers, these subway cars are now home to millions of sea life.

'The Metropolitan Transit Authority's recycling program has been involved for the past decade, retiring over 2500 subways cars to the ocean to help rebuild underwater reefs along the eastern seabed,' the New York photographer explains.

Big slpash

'These are my images, seconds before these mass transit vessels join history in building homes for life under the sea.'

All empty for sinking.

The reefs attract fish because they provide protection from predators, and generate food like mussels, shrimp and crabs that quickly colonise the structure.

Water rushing in

About 95 per cent of the seabed off the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast is naturally bare sand, which is much less likely to attract fish.

Last on in

Officials hope the new reefs will become home to such inshore species as black sea bass, tautog and summer flounder. These in turn should attract game like marlin, tuna and dolphin.

Long stretch

The moment one of the cars gets dumped Officials hope the new reefs created by the cars will become home to such inshore species as black sea bass, tautog and summer flounder. The cars were dumped on a stretch of coast from Delaware to South Carolina.

There goes another one

Overall, corals are estimated to generate $200 million (£131 million) annually in the U.S.

Mr Mallon's images will be on display at New York University's Kimmel Galleries from February 6th to March 15, 2015.

Unstacking

About 95 per cent of the seabed off the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast is naturally bare sand, which is much less likely to attract fish. These subway cars are expected to act as a home for them, now that they have come to the end of their useful life in New York.

Almost there

'After being pushed and stacked like a sardine in these subways cars over the past decade, it is nice to see the sardine actually getting one of these as its new steel condo,' said Mr Mallon.

Bottom

This image, along with others in the project American Reclamation, will be on display at New York University's Kimmel Galleries.

Wating for the last ride

The 18-ton stainless steel cars - minus wheels, windows and doors - are stacked two-high on a barge where a bucket crane with a specially designed hydraulic lift picked them up one by one.

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Artificial reef
Photos
New York Subway Recycling "Subways to Seaweed"

Many thanks to Ray McClure for creating this target.