In 2006, volunteers lowered a stripped Boeing 737 into the Pacific; 20 years later, the jet has become a cold-water artificial reef

Somewhere off the coast of Vancouver Island, a retired passenger jet sits on the seafloor like it just took off. It hasn't flown in twenty-five years, but it still draws people underwater. This is the story of the Xihuw Reef, a Boeing 737 transformed into an artificial reef by Canada. But these structures are not just quirky tourist attractions, NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science says. Research has shown that artificial reefs and shipwrecks may attract large numbers of fish, even top predators.

A plane's strange path to the seafloor