To create an artificial coral reef system for marine life and a new site for divers, three airplanes disguised as sharks will be sunk into the waters off the Dog Islands near Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands in late October.
The project was the brainchild of Beyond the Reef, a group of collaborators that included an underwater engineer and a metal sculptor whose passion for the oceans brought them together.
The team sourced three abandoned planes, which underwent a metamorphosis into sharks lurking on the seabed, waiting to be discovered by intrigued divers and hungry marine creatures.
It took the team several months to strip the aircraft of all hazardous materials and to create cavernous holes in their surfaces to allow access for divers before the planes were sand-screwed into the seabed.
Also creating an artificial reef is the iconic old Willy T, a famed floating bar that was
destroyed in the 2017 hurricanes and was sunk on
Aug. 7 in Key Bay Peter Island. (Its replacement now has a
permanent home in its original location in the Bight at Norman Island.)
"We believe that these artificial reefs, created from abandoned wreckages by an inspiring and passionate group of individuals, will become a valuable tourism asset for the BVI and bring a fresh new look to our dive product," said Rhodni Skelton, its deputy director of tourism.
BVI dive companies are asking each diver who explores these new sites to donate $5, which will go back into the community through an initiative that teaches local children how to swim.
The donations are at the forefront of the Beyond the Reef project. After discovering that less than one-third of the children living in the BVI know how to swim, the Beyond the Reef team set a goal to have every child swimming in the next 10 years.
Skelton pointed out that teaching kids to swim not only is an important skill for living in the British Virgin Islands, "but also a fundamental skill for jobs and opportunities in the marine sector."
Correction: The Willy T floating bar's original location was in the Bight at Norman Island. An incorrect location appeared in an earlier version of this article.