The world’s fastest ocean liner, the SS United States arrived in Mobile, Alabama, on March 3 after being towed approximately 1,800 miles from her berth in Philadelphia. Constructed in the early 1950s by more than 3,100 shipyard workers and retired since 1969, the luxury passenger ship will now be prepared for her next chapter: becoming the largest artificial reef in the world!
Personnel will soon begin removing hazardous materials and preserving historical artifacts, some of which will be featured in a museum dedicated to the ship’s storied history. The iconic, 990-foot-long vessel that once transported U.S. presidents and the Mona Lisa will eventually rest off the coast of Destin, Florida, creating a thriving underwater habitat that will attract marine life, divers and anglers alike.
In recent weeks, the poignant story of the SS United States has garnered national news coverage and sparked widespread public interest. While Florida will have the privilege of housing the world’s largest artificial reef, did you know that Alabama already possesses the largest artificial reef program in the nation?
The waters off the coast of Alabama feature a massive artificial reef area known as the Alabama Artificial Reef Zone (AARZ), which spans more than 1,000 square miles. The AARZ reef-building program began in the 1950s; over the past 75 years, thousands of artificial structures have been deliberately placed in the AARZ. Some structures, like reef pyramids, have been newly constructed specifically for deployment in the AARZ. Many others are repurposed materials similar to the SS United States; these include cars, ships, barges, tanks and planes.
How do these artificial reefs support AARZ reef fishes (snappers, jacks, groupers and triggerfish)? The north-central Gulf of America contains few natural reefs, and the seafloor is comprised mostly of sand and mud. Artificial reef structures increase the amount of vertical relief and complexity compared to the existing substrate. Vertical relief can be thought of as the elevation change, or ruggedness, provided by each structure. Complexity can be thought of as the diversity inherent in each structure; it increases over time as small, immobile animals like barnacles, sponges and corals colonize the reef.
Structures that have high vertical relief and high complexity tend to attract greater numbers of reef fishes, primarily due to increased prey availability and increased protection from predators, and may even help to produce more reef fishes over time.
For more information about the SS United States, please visit the SS United States Conservancy website.
For more information about the AARZ, please visit the Outdoor Alabama website
Meet the author
Amanda Jargowsky
Marine Fisheries Specialist
Amanda Jargowsky is a marine fisheries specialist with the MASGC-supported Marine Fisheries Ecology Program at the Mississippi State University Coastal Research and Extension Center. She conducted... Read more
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