Per Yo MO's request - Well as much as I love warm water diving, I just love to dive and do so here in NJ. I am lucky that NJ has a very aggressive artificial reef program that has continued for years. Some of the sites are spectacular in diversity although without the colors we come to see on Bonaire. The fact is very quickly the biomass develops on whatever they put in the water as the NJ shore is a costal plain with little natural underwater structure.

Information on the reef balls (inmate made!):
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/news/2008/reefballs07.htm and http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/artreefdeployment.htm

Information on the various reef sites and tons of other stuff:
http://njscuba.net/reefs/index.html

The latest:
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/news/2008/subwaydeploy8-08.htm

With little government money the reef system keeps expanding due to the dedication of many people. I donate indirectly thru several organizations that assist with getting this done.
Not trying to be a wise guy, buy think global - act local for the betterment of us all.

I have often wondered if some of the old junk cars and construction debris on Bonaire could be used in a similar way?

Patrick

Pat, good for you! They say if you can dive off of New Jersey and the Carolina's you are a very good diver.
I have done one dive here...guess that sums up "my" diving ability!
When we got certified we thought we would dive here and bought everything needed to dive these waters. Fortunatly for us...we did our second dive in the Caribbean
There was a reef built in Florida out of old tires..but it turned out to be a bad move. See below (no pun intended!)
If the tires were layed down without the ropes or metal holding them together they may have settled in nicely.
Personally the reef ball idea seems well "rounded" but I am skeptical of tossing in subway cars and even ships unless they have sunk due to an accident. Hope the link works.
http://media.www.bgnews.com/media/storage/paper883/news/2006/09/22/Nation/Rubber.Tire.Reef.Endangers.Floridas.Marine.Life.Officials.Look.For.Remedy-2302642.shtml

Hi Meryl, I always say if you can dive in Dutch Springs, PA you can dive anywhere. Cold fresh water really sucks IMHO. Plenty of shallow stuff here to dive here, viz can be +25 feet (perfect day 50) at times and it actually is not to bad diving in the fall when surface temp can be in the 70's, but when you hit the first thermocline you know it. I have no current interest in tech diving but would like to dive a few subs someday. You would be amazed at the amount of life on the NJ reefs, not just fish, they actually make up less then 5% of the biomass but filter feeders, crabs, lobsters and "white" coral. My wife has had a new Henderson full 7m for 18 months and yet to get it wet, but this fall I hope to change that.

Have a great summer.
Patrick

Tires were never were a good idea for reefs. But ships and subways cars should be great. Iron is a limiting material for a reef and plankton, so any that we can add should be good. I am a little skeptical of old plane or anything made of Aluminum. It would seem to me that it will corrode away long before you get any growth on it.