More than a dozen old army tanks have been submerged in the ocean off Dubai to create a new home for marine life.

The project, one of two launched by Dubai Police to boost marine life, saw 15 tanks stripped of any potentially harmful oils and plastic pipes and lowered into the Gulf for fish to explore.

“Instead of dismantling the tanks and selling the parts as scrap, we decided to adopt one of our officer’s initiatives to put them in the ocean to serve as an artificial environment to marine life,” Major General Ahmad Thani, assistant director of ports affairs, told The National.

The second initiative saw around 700 coral seeds planted after scuba divers reported dwindling coral reefs along the shores.

Like the tank project, the coral planting was the brainchild of Captain Obaid Al Shamsi, head of property at the police general department of services and supplies.

Captain Al Shamsi said he took inspiration from the way other countries like the US and Australia have used defunct army tanks to promote sea life in the past.

As for the second initiative, when divers told of the decrease in coral reef, “we thought we should do something about it,” Captain Al Shamsi said.

As a results scuba divers armed with hundreds of coral seeds got to work planting beneath the waves.

Both projects have now been handed to a marine environment protection agency.

The news comes just a few weeks after images circulated of plans to create an Atlantis-style sunken city near The World islands development. According to reports, American company ‘Reef Worlds’ are drawing up the plans under the title ‘The Pearl of Dubai’.

“Ideally, we would be looking for somebody to be able to walk down the sand and right into the structure,”  Dave Taylor, the company’s director of development, said of the eight-month project that is set to be announced in March.