Forty-four retired New York subway cars have been sunken 19 miles southeast of Ocean City in an effort to create an artificial reef. Maryland’s coast, a place once rich in animal life thanks to its natural reefs, has seen its habitat destroyed by pollution and accelerated erosion caused by the fast development of coastal cities.

The artificial reef, which is part of an 11 year old initiative, is supposed to create a habitat that will attract vast numbers of marine species, and will help make Maryland the fishermen’s paradise it once was.

The financial effort for making this possible was made by Jack Power, a businessman and a marine wildlife aficionado, who donated $25,000 to the Ocean City Reef Foundation, the price for shipping the subway cars 19 miles offshore. The cars were offered by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and $8,000 was spent on each car in order to take away any materials that would break free and any lubricants that could become a source of pollution.

The cars were built in the 60s and are supposed to last underwater for about 40 years. Expectations are that within a year shellfish and other forms of marine life that will stick to the structure will make it impossible to distinguish its initial form.

Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative (MARI), one of the partners of the project, has already raised about $1.4 million to support local reef projects. It has already contacted the well known underwater filmmaker Nick Caloyianis, who is supposed to dive and provide footage of the first step of the process of creating the reef as soon as the cars will be placed. This comes as part of the effort of raising public awareness on the reef problem.

The animals that will populate the new reef located in a place called Jackspot, are expected to cause a boost in Maryland’s fishing tourism.