Boeing 737 Becomes Artificial Reef Off Vancouver Island

A Boeing 737 aircraft that was decommissioned by Air Canada due to age and structural problems has been transformed into an artificial reef off Vancouver Island. The plane, which weighs 15 tonnes and measures 30 metres long, was donated to the Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia (ARSBC) in 2006.

The project began with a phone call from Fraser MacLean of Air Canada in November 2002, who had seen the coverage of the HMCS Cape Breton's sinking and thought the ARSBC might be interested in acquiring the Boeing 737 for its second reef. After nearly four years of planning, including securing approval from Environment Canada and six local First Nations, the project was cleared for its final descent.

The plane was mounted on 11-foot-high support stands and lowered by crane into the waters of Georgia Strait off Chemainus on January 14, 2006. The site was chosen specifically because the region lacked significant marine life at the time, having been affected by decades of forest-industry debris on the seafloor.

The wreck has since become a thriving ecosystem, with over a hundred documented species colonizing its surfaces. Cloud sponges, plumose anemones, feather stars, octopuses, and red sea urchins have all made their home on the aircraft's surfaces, while rockfish shelter along the wings and fuselage, and schools of juvenile fish use the plane's structure for cover.