In November 1985, Broward County officials sank the remains of a DC-4 cargo plane onto the seafloor 71 feet below the surface off Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Four decades later, it's known as the Marriott Reef, one of hundreds of "planned wrecks" along a stretch of coastline often called the wreck capital of the world. It's real, and it's documented. The Reef Environmental Education Foundation's (REEF) Volunteer Fish Survey Project database still lists the Marriott site as an active dive site off Broward County, with trained volunteers going there periodically to log the number of various fish species found around the wreckage. It's the least flashy form of citizen science: No lab coats, just scuba gear, and a waterproof slate, and it's part of a much bigger and weirder American tradition of converting waste into habitat.
Why Florida keeps sinking things on purpose
Broward County's waters are home to one of the nation's highest densities of artificial reefs, including retired ships, old barges, sections of old bridges, and yes, at least one airplane. The rationale goes back to a national plan on artificial reefs that the federal government helped establish in the 1980s, to provide habitat for fish where natural reef habitat began to decline.
