Thanks to help from Wildlife Forever, a 130-foot barge now rests off the Florida coast. The barge was purposely sunk as a part of the Pompano Beach Fishing Rodeo’s artificial reef program. Retired from the service as one of the country’s oldest operating dredge barges, the vessel went down with a bang as experts from the Broward County Bomb Squad detonated the shop in a plume of smoke and fire. It was sunk in 120 feet of water, about 1-1/2 miles from shore. The newly created reef has created an entirely new marine ecosystem, not only for game fish, but for corals, sponges, and other aquatic life as well.