Much of South Carolina’s seafloor is flat and sandy, offering little shelter for fish along the coast. For decades, the state’s wildlife managers have tried to change that by sinking retired ships, vehicles and construction debris to give marine life places to cling to and hide. One of their more elaborate efforts came in September 2021, when a 250-foot decommissioned barge was towed about 10 nautical miles off Edisto Island and deliberately sunk. On its deck were sections of a dismantled municipal water tower, a dozen shipping containers with holes cut through their steel walls, and a life-sized concrete sculpture of a great white shark. It took approximately two hours for the barge to disappear beneath the waves. Five years later, the structure remains part of the Edisto 60-foot artificial reef, where its containers and water-tower sections provide the varied shelter the project was designed to create for marine life
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