Barge workers unload one of 44 cleaned-up New York City subway cars Saturday into the ocean at the Bill Perry Jr. Artificial Reef located 25 nautical miles offshore east of Murrells Inlet. The cars, donated by the New York City Transit's subway department, are dropped into the ocean to give fish a place to seek shelter. So far, the partnership between the transit authority and the S.C. Department of Natural Resources has retired 200 subway cars for placement in area artificial reefs. "The primary advantage of creating an artificial reef is that you're enhancing fishery stocks that are for the most part in decline," said DNR's artificial reef manager Robert M. Martore. "Recreational fishing is a big industry in South Carolina, so the more areas that we can create, the more fishermen we can allow to participate in the fishery."
