Without judging, this is the first I've heard of deliberately sinking ships to create artificial reefs.

This is somewhat common. Once cleaned up, they provide refuge for sea life, and increased economic activity for nearby communities via fishing and diving.

The program in the Florida Keys is huge.

https://gis.myfwc.com/boating_guides/florida_keys/pages/art_...

Your mind may be blown by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbird_Reef

That is really cool, thanks

Yeah, that was pretty interesting.

> From 2001 to 2008, within the vicinity of the reef, the amount of marine food per square foot has increased 400 times.

> The site has become so popular that fishermen steal from each other, and other states apply for the next subway cars to be dumped in their waters.

I guess the biggest problem in the ocean is the inability to stay in place. There was an interesting discussion of something similar on Twitter a couple years ago: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1760058156632142058.html

> Hyenas can strip a dead elephant clean in less than 48 hours.

> But in the ocean, whale carcasses drift around for months before they eventually sink.

> Land animals have gravity privilege. Any random stray dog can tear into a dead cow, even if the cow is a lot larger.

> But when bunch of sharks come up on the floating whale carcass, it's essentially a game of bobbing for pumpkins... it's not really possible to hold on to it or tear it open.