Photo Gallery



There are four Gimrock Barge sites, the latest one going down in over 250ft of water. This site is now the 2nd deepest in 178ft of water. It’s a 195ft scow barge with a 147ft deck barge crumpled up inside of it with most of the debris on the North side of the scow barge.



 

Gimrock Barge

Our drip was a little off, with nothing but sand. At 160ft we leveled out and found a few grouper, parrotfish, and a lobster pot line. Grouper are excluded in the “follow the fish” protocol as they often head for the open sand. Parrotfish and Jacks will head for shelter when threatened. However, as James Bond said in “Live and Let Die,” “Follow the scarecrows..” in our case there was a lobster pot line running 1ft off the sand to our right and shooting up at a steep angle to our left, follow the lobster pot line.



The Barge came right into view. The sides were buckling from the weight of the interior barge on landing. There healthy hogfish in and around the barge. As we scootered around the barge, there were some fish schooling under the side of the south end of the barge. Not much inside in the barge at the south end as there is no structure besides the walls. A few butterfly fish, Redband Parrotfish, and Sharp nose Puffer fish pick odds and ends off the sides.



We headed back up the North side with all the debris and fish. Grunts and Snappers hung our around the bottom. Purple Reefish schooled near the top edges.



It’s a pretty site for being down 4.5 years. I’m just one barge away now from hitting all the sites in the 130-170ft range off Miami.



 

Scootering Key Biscayne Site (Princess Britney, Parasio, Rio Miami, & Dema Trader

The Princess Britney should be renamed, the “Princess Cuda.” They have infested this wreck. I’m not just talking a couple, we are talking around a hundred. As soon as we dropped , they came up to greet us.



The visibility was sucked with an east-running cross current due to a thermo cline. The colder 71-degree water was under the warmer 74-degree water on top.

The bridge looked like it was opened up with a can opener. The forward section of steel was missing. I didn’t notice it on the deck, it looked more like it had dissolved. This seems to be the first thing to go, as a similar think happened on the Jupiter Star (Cleve Jones Jr.) and on the Dema Trader, all of which have been down for less than 2 years.



Some more grunts were schooling in the concrete debris. There was some growth, but not enough yet for Reef to take off. It will be another year or two. I wish they had put concrete like this in the barges before they sink them. I hope this site will look like the Sea Emperor off Pompano in a few years.



Up at the bow, there was another pack of Cudas hanging off the mast. Anchors and line adorn the mast making it look like a boaters Christmas tree. Baits hand off like ornaments with decorative chain and ropes trailing off in the currents.



We scootered blind and slowly into the cross current across the sand to the Parasio. The visibility worsened and I snapped a few photos in vain. After one lap we went to the Rio Miami.



From the Rio we hit the Dema Trader. Again, the bridge had been opened up. A few fish were here and there.



We took off over the sand foe a few remaining minutes. Jody found a chair and upon closer inspection there was a scorpion fish hanging out underneath one of the legs. I guess he needed to get away from it all for a while!



–Matt