Marli Goodman and her family shared a unique experience that they'll cherish forever. Alongside their local dive club, they boarded a boat to witness the transformation of a retired tugboat into an artificial reef in the Gulf of America.

After careful positioning, workers opened underwater valves and filled the tugboat with water. The crowd watched as the stern started taking on water, tilting briefly before correcting itself, a moment that thrilled Marli’s son, who exclaimed, “Yes! It straightened back up!” The celebratory horn from a nearby tugboat marked the successful sinking.

My husband, my two kids, and I joined our dive club on the dive boat to watch a retired tugboat be turned into an artificial reef in the gulf here in Panama City, Florida. We watched for a few hours as it was placed into just the right position and then workers started opening valves down under and pouring water into the boat with hoses. We saw the workers climb onto another tugboat and waited to see what happened. Once the stern started taking on water, it sunk pretty quickly in just a couple of minutes. It started tilting to the side, which is not ideal for how it lands on the bottom, and then it corrected itself, and you hear my son saying, “Yes! It straightened back up!” And the other tugboat blew a celebratory horn. After we were sure the boat was safely submerged and cleared, my husband and his dive friends got into their scuba gear and dove the new site. There were already about 200 fish in it when my husband went down, which is really awesome. Definitely a day to remember! My kids can’t wait until they’re old enough to dive this spot and say they were there the day it sank!