Pheonix

[Admin]

County Decription: Phoenix Lost Barge - 75 foot barge lying N-S.
Deployed: 1/30/1998
Depth: 75 ft
Relief: 13 ft

[stone]

The North-South orientation is confirmed. Several deck plates and side hull plates have fallen in making limited penetration possible. The structure appears held together with criss-crossing "I" beams below the deck. Monofiliment and narrow passages between "I" beams pose entanglement hazards. Many black snapper inhabit the interior. This trip included schools of barely legal AJs at deck level and in the water column above. Small schools of juvenile red snapper were cleaning themselves in the sand under the bow and stern. Shell piles indicate a small population of octopi. More data on the marine growth is needed. A survey plotting the current location of deckplate holes and side hull holes would be beneficial in determinining the rate of deterioration due to age and storm. I recall diving the Phoenix in 2001, and don't remember missing deck plates. We also dove the Pheonix in Mar 2004 and May 2005 and recorded flounder and Red Snapper. I believe I started seeing the holes in the deckplates in 2005 after hurricane Ivan.

[ReelFinatical]

Our first stop on Jan 27, 2008 was this wreck in 75' of water SE of the pass. We anchored, put down sabikis, frozen cigs, and several types of jigs and got nothing. There were fish showing on the screen, but we could not get a single thing to bite.

[spear]

The relief isn't 13 feet. It's more like 4-5 feet at most I think.

[Mattatoar]

I was at Phoenix a couple weeks ago and found no grouper over 12 inches and plenty of snapper and small AJ's. The relief is 6-7 feet I'd say.

[Mikey]

We made two dives on the Phoenix Barge, an 85’ x 40’ barge sitting upright on the sand in 76 feet of water 6 miles southeast of the Destin Pass. The barge was sunk in 1998 and is starting to show some age with several side and top panels rusted through, which gives fairly easy access, in several locations, to the interior. The first dive was in daylight and the second was the night dive. Water temperature at 15’ was 84 degrees and visibility here was around 15 feet. There was a thermocline at 40-45’ where the temperature dropped to 73 degrees which was also the bottom temperature. Visibility below the thermocline was about 40 feet. The barge did not have as many fish on it as it usually does, but there was plenty to see. During the day dive, several large schools of small Amberjack circled over the wreck while a number of small Red Snapper tried their best to hide from us in and under the barge. Two octopi inhabited a couple of bollards on the deck. One octopus was very playful while the other hid whenever a diver came by. There was a pair of Blackspot Butterflyfish swimming around on deck. There were also a number of Soapfish and several Mother-In-Law Fish inhabiting some of the recesses. A lot of the recesses on the wreck had Bristleworms in them, with several large ones venturing out on the wreck. I spotted a single Shovelnose Lobster hiding in a tube along the side of the wreck but it was too far in to reach. There were a number of Murex shells, a couple of Cowries, and several Hermit Crabs scattered about. There were few baitfish on the wreck, which is unusual. Just before leaving the bottom, the resident Goliath Grouper made a guest appearance. It was probably the largest Goliath I’ve ever seen measuring 6-7’ in length and weighing in excess of 500 lbs. It loitered over the southeast corner of the wreck watching me explore its home.

After a 90 minute surface interval, we entered for the night dive about an hour after sunset. The first two divers down the line spotted the Goliath sitting off the east side of the wreck, but it made a hasty departure from view, although it certainly hung around because we could here it’s foghorn like calls throughout the night dive. It did NOT like us being there although it never came back within view. There were several octopi swimming freely about the wreck, one of which was starting to climb up my arm until the Goliath sounded off. This scared the octopus, so it let go of me and made a hasty retreat to where the Goliath couldn’t make a meal of it. There were two Foureye Butterflyfish swimming on the wreck at night as opposed to the two Blackspot Butterflyfish that were there during the day. The Red Snapper were nowhere to be seen but the small Amberjack continued to circle overhead the wreck during the night dive. The wreck still had a fair number of Murex shells but now the Cowries really made their appearance. I counted at least 20 around the wreck, some with their mantles out and some just showing their shells, but all seemed to be in very good shape. One of the more interesting sights was the dance of the cyalumes. Since all of the divers had cyalume sticks on their tanks so we could keep track of each other, as we swam about the wreck it looked like some sort of unchoreographed dance recital, especially when you turned off your dive light. The strobe I had attached to the anchor added to the ethereal effect as it flashed in the background.

[Mikey]

Our third dive of the day was on the Phoenix Barge, a fairly standard 80’ x 40’ barge lying east-west and sitting upright on the sand in 76 feet of water about five nautical miles south of the Destin Pass. It appeared to have a bit more damage since the storms a few weeks ago hit it. There are a number of areas on the top and sides that have fallen in. The last time I was on the wreck, there were two Octopus occupying lairs, one on the eastern end and one near the western end. Both those lairs were now occupied by Mother-In-Law (Toad) Fish. We did not see an Octopus anywhere on the wreck. The resident Goliath Grouper was also nowhere to be seen or heard. There were plenty of fish including Atlantic Spadefish, small Amberjack, small Red Snapper, Triggerfish, Queen Angelfish, Butterflyfish, Wrasse, and some baitfish. There were also three nice Cowries and a few Murex shells. I didn’t see the large Trident shell that used to be near the western end. Water temperature was again around 80 degrees and visibility was about 40 feet although a bit cloudy. The vis was better on the eastern end then on the western end for some reason.