Forty years later, the tires are still there causing more harm than good in the coastal Florida waters.
This was before recycling caught on.
They were convinced that corals would attach and grow on the tires and provide additional habitat for marine life.
It was a well intentioned but not a particularly well thought out plan.
The tires were bundled together with steel clips and nylon rope and lowered onto the sea floor.
Besides, the loose tires scoured the ocean floor and damaged existing reefs in the area.
Thousands of tires have been spotted and pulled from beaches as far north as North Carolina.
As of 2009, only 73,000 tires were retrieved.
Out of the original 2 million, about 700,000 still rest off Fort Lauderdale’s coast.
This project is not the only one of its kind.
These countries are now seeing the ramifications of tire reefs, from littered beaches to reef destruction.
