Queens’ ferry godmothers have arrived.
A swarm of sea-loving do-gooders is giving new life to a dilapidated former ferry that has been rusting in Long Island City for more than a decade, scrubbing it up to help turn it into an artificial reef for marine life.
Dozens of volunteers cleaned and de-cluttered the decommissioned Prudence Ferry on Saturday, marking its first step toward transformation.
“It had been sitting there for years without having been used,” said Harris Moore, 36, a local scuba diver who had grown sick of swimming past the neglected ferry and pitched its makeover.
“It was unused but still floating. It’s a good size. It’s not too big. It’s not too small,” he said.
“Those are the kind of vessels that [proponents] are really looking for.”
The Prudence — which had once been used to ferry people and cars in Rhode Island — has been moored in Anable Basin for more than a decade, after a dream to turn it into a floating beer garden sank.
The local plastics manufacturing company Plaxall had bought the ship for $70,000 in 2012 with the boozy plan in mind, but a series of regulatory hurdles and structural issues left the move dead in the water.
Then Moore got the idea to make it an artificial reef and teamed up with Bill Cadden, president of the Long Island Artificial Reef Society, to turn that vision into reality.
The Prudence’s final resting place will likely be with the 16-Fathom, a 3-year-old artificial reef roughly 13 nautical miles southwest of the Fire Island Inlet.
The plan is far from unheard of — the MTA has dumped thousands of old train cars into the Atlantic Ocean since 2001 to be used as homes for flounder, tuna, coral, barnacles and other sea-dwelling straphangers.
“In marine ecosystems, structure is a limiting factor. Most of the animals that make up the base of marine ecosystems need something hard and physical to attach themselves to,” Moore said. “Things like mussels and oysters or corals and sponges and algae aren’t just going to grow on the sand.
“They need something to attach themselves to. And then fish also are going to want to be around those kinds of organisms for food but also for shelter. They hide from predators around these reefs, hunt on these reefs.
“You could have a shipwreck that will be teeming with life, and every square inch of it is covered in mussels, crabs, fish. And then you swim 50ft away into the sand, and it’s just like being in a barren desert,” he said.
Moore’s plan was nearly thwarted by this winter’s harsh weather, which caused the ferry to partially deteriorate and allow water to flood its engine room last month.
But Cadden was able to pump the water out and refloat the vessel.
Before it can be sunk into the Atlantic, the Prudence needs to be cleaned of debris and other loose materials it has accumulated over the past decade.
Moore asked volunteers to pitch in over the next several weeks, and the response has been overwhelming.
About a dozen volunteers showed up Saturday to remove old wiring, sweep the floors, strip the chipping paint and toss out its dozens of decaying life jackets.
“We see this ferry almost every day, and we always wondered about it,” said a volunteer named Kat. “We learned about the artificial reef program, which is really cool. I didn’t know about the artificial reef programs!
“Basically, what we’re doing here today is cleaning it up so the fish don’t get caught on little debris or eat paint chips so everything’s sparkling and clean for their new habitats,” Kat said.
Another volunteer named Will said the experience “seemed like a really noble and interesting effort, and I wanted to make sure that it succeeded.
A helper named Darya, who spent the morning sweeping, said, “I think it’s a wonderful community that I would like to give back to.”
The volunteers will come back for several other cleaning trips over the next few weeks.
The hope is to sink the Prudence in its final resting spot as part of the 16-Fathom artificial reef this summer.
-Additional reporting by JC Rice
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