NEWS OF THE DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL
June 2, 2009
Vol. 39, No. 250

For more information contact Jeffrey Tinsman, Fisheries Section, Division of Fish and Wildlife, 302-739-4782; or Beth Shockley, Public Affairs, 302-739-9902. 

39 More Subway Cars Sunk at Delaware's Redbird Artificial Reef

The DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Artificial Reef Program today oversaw the sinking of another 39 New York City subway cars at Delaware’s largest and most popular artificial reef, Redbird Reef.

The subway cars were sunk to expand the capacity of the reef, enhance fisheries habitat, and increase fishing and diving opportunities for thousands of recreational anglers and divers who visit the site each year.

With the total surface area of the cars at more than 2.5 million square feet, Redbird Reef supports a marine life community up to 400 times richer than the natural bottom. In the Mid-Atlantic region, the ocean bottom is usually featureless sand or mud. Subway cars make ideal reef material, because voids and cavities in its structure provide the perfect sanctuary for reef fish. Within a few weeks, blue mussels, sponges, barnacles and soft corals attach to the structure, and in about a year, the reef will be fully productive, resembling natural habitat.

“The continued development of Redbird Reef supplies literally tons of ideal food for reef fish,” said Jeffrey Tinsman, reef program manager with DNREC’s Fisheries Section. “Each addition of subway cars increases the reef’s capacity to support, for example, black sea bass and tautog populations.”

Today’s operation was carried out by the marine transportation division of Weeks Marine, Inc., a worldwide towing and barge operator contracted by MTA New York City Transit, which also completed the car cleanup to remove all greases and buoyant materials that might be harmful to the marine environment. The operation was funded by MTA New York City Transit. DNREC’s role was to oversee the placement of the subway cars at the reef.

The addition of 39 subway cars brings the total number of sunken subway cars on Redbird Reef to 973. Although the artificial reef was created in 1997, the first subway car sinking at the reef occurred in August of 2001, when 27 cars were sunk. The most recent sinking at Redbird Reef was in April of this year, when 44 subway cars were sunk.

Redbird Reef is now more than 1.3 square nautical miles of ocean bottom located 16 nautical miles off the coast of the Indian River Inlet. Since the reef was first created, a variety of materials have been deployed at the site including the subway cars, 11 large vessels - including decommissioned barges, commercial vessels and tugboats, 86 armored military vehicles and 6,000 tons of ballasted truck tire units. The reef now supports more than 13,000 angler visits per year, up from fewer than 300 in 1997.

Delaware has 14 permitted artificial reef sites in the Delaware Bay and coastal waters, with five of these sites located in federal (ocean) waters. Development of the sites began in 1995 as part of a comprehensive fisheries management effort by the Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Delaware Reef Program.

For more information, visit http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/fw/Fisheries/Pages/ArtificialReefProgram.aspx  or contact Jeff Tinsman, Delaware Reef Program administrator, at 302-739-4782