Plate Nº 80 · recorded November 12, 2026
Biology & EvolutionReported finding
The SS United States Will Become the World's Largest Ship Reef
The 990-foot SS United States, a Cold War liner faster than the Queen Mary, will be sunk off Florida to become the world's largest intentional shipwreck reef, a $13 million project.
By Elena Vasquez4 min read736 words
In brief
- The 990-foot SS United States will be sunk about 25 miles off Destin-Fort Walton Beach, Florida, becoming the world's largest intentional shipwreck reef in a $13 million project.
- The liner entered service in 1952, carried 1,984 passengers, and could secretly transport 14,000 troops under its Cold War design.
- A Northeastern-led review of 82 artificial reefs found they consistently increase fish populations.
- An October Nature paper found 44% of 774 assessed coral species are at least threatened with extinction.
- The wreck will surpass the 910-foot USS Oriskany, sunk off Florida in 2006, as the largest ship-based reef.
A 990-foot ocean liner is set to be deliberately sunk off Florida's coast this week, creating the world's largest artificial reef made from an intentionally scuttled ship. The SS United States, a Cold War-era luxury liner that once crossed the Atlantic in record time, will go down roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) off Destin-Fort Walton Beach on the Florida Panhandle as part of a $13 million project led by Okaloosa County and the SS United States Conservancy.
The sinking is planned for Wednesday, Veterans Day. Tugboats will tow the vessel to a prearranged spot, where crews will open its ballast valves to flood its tanks. No explosives will be used. The ship should sink slowly and settle upright on the seafloor nearly 200 feet (61 meters) below the surface.
Why sink a legendary liner?
The SS United States entered service in 1952 and carried 1,984 passengers across the Atlantic in just three days and 10 hours — remarkably fast for its era. It also secretly carried a Cold War design provision: the ship could transport 14,000 troops, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. Decommissioned in 1969, it spent decades rusting in shipyards while restoration plans repeatedly fell through.
"This saves the ship from being scrapped for metal or meeting some other demise," Trey Goodwin, chairman of the Okaloosa County Commission, said in a statement to Northeastern Global News. "No, it won't be sailing the sea, but it will still be at sea. This honors it. It lives on."
The vessel stands 17 stories high, stretches about 110 feet (34 meters) longer than the Titanic, and its hull is built from 2-inch-thick (5.1-centimeter-thick) battle-grade steel. Its eight boilers and four turbine steam engines once pushed it to record speeds of 44 mph (71 kilometers per hour), beating the RMS Queen Mary's 38 mph (61 km/h).
What happens on the seafloor?
Metal-hulled wrecks give algae, corals and other marine life a hard surface to settle on in an otherwise sandy seabed, and the fish follow, said Noah Haag, a researcher in Northeastern University's Marine and Environmental Sciences Department.
"They'll have places to hide, forage and propagate," Haag said of the fish the wreck should attract. County officials predict red snapper and grouper will move in, and because of the ship's sheer size, open-water species such as amberjack, mackerel and tuna could follow.
If the landing goes well, divers could reach the ship's top funnels just 55 feet (17 meters) below the surface, while the keel would rest 180 feet (55 meters) down. Divers will need to confirm the final position.
The new reef will edge out the current record-holder: the 910-foot (277-meter) USS Oriskany, a warship intentionally sunk off Florida's Gulf Coast in 2006, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Do artificial reefs actually work?
The science is encouraging but has caveats. Haag and Northeastern associate professor David Kimbro, who heads the Kimbro Lab at the university's marine center, recently published a paper in the ICES Journal of Marine Science reviewing 82 artificial reefs across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The study, "Global synthesis reveals that artificial reef units consistently augment fish assemblages," found that reef units generally boost fish populations.
The stakes are rising. Nearly half of the world's natural reef-building corals face an elevated risk of extinction, according to an October paper in Nature that assessed 774 coral species. It found 44% at least threatened and 33 critically endangered.
"We're losing coral reefs globally; we need more habitats," Kimbro said.
Artificial reefs vary widely in quality, from poured concrete coral replicas and decommissioned oil rigs to piles of broken concrete, old telephone poles and chained-together tires. Virginia even sank 40 decommissioned armored military personnel carriers about 6 miles (9.7 kilometers) off Assateague Beach near Ocean City, Maryland, in 1998. Structures riddled with holes work best, Haag said.
One limitation for this project: no formal marine biomass survey was done before the sinking, so scientists lack a clean before-and-after comparison to confirm the reef is truly adding fish. Still, Haag said, the wreck should prove a genuine boon for sea life.
The SS United States won't sail again. But it will keep working, one snapper at a time.
via phys.org/rss-feed/ (Source)
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Correspondent covering money, funding and market shifts around general science news at SciBeat.
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