A ship sinks beneath the ocean.

At first, it seems like the story is over.

The vessel disappears below the surface.

But underwater, something completely different begins.

Fish arrive.

Algae attach to the structure.

Invertebrates colonize the surfaces.

Corals and other organisms begin growing around it.

And over time, a shipwreck can become an entirely new habitat.

In Why Shipwrecks Turn Into Artificial Reefs, we explore the fascinating ecological process that transforms sunken vessels into artificial reef structures.

We begin with what happens immediately after a ship reaches the seafloor.

A wreck creates something the surrounding environment may not have had before:

Three-dimensional structure.

Instead of a relatively open stretch of sand or mud, the s ...