TISIRI's Joe Kistel recently provided a lecture at the University of Florida Whitney campus describing the underwater world, and related conservation efforts, of northeast Florida. The lecture was recorder and can be watched below:
In October the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Sector Jacksonville deployed several artificial reefs modules offshore northeast Florida at the John C. Leone Memorial Reef site (JCL Reef). Forterra Pipe and Precast provided 11 clean concrete risers and Gate Precast constructed a custom reef site marker for the ocean conservation project. Recently divers were able to visit the JCL reef Continue…
Two vessels were intentionally sunk offshore northeast Florida to create marine habitat and a new fishing and scuba ding location. Each vessel was over 100 feet long and went through rigorous preparations to become suitable artificial reef structures. Below are POV style videos showing how the vessels were scuttled. The vessels were sunk in 90 feet of water about 25 Continue…
Four new Reef Ball modules were deployed offshore St Augustine Florida at the St. Johns County "Bridge of Lions" artificial reef permit area. The reef ball GPS coordinates are: 29° 52'594 81° 09'164 Here is a brief video of the reef balls being placed into the ocean.
It is nearly the 2 year anniversary since a giant barge load of concrete reef materials, provided by Gate Precast, was placed into the ocean offshore Ponte Vedra. We just completed a dive investigation of the new artificial reef to check on progress. We were amazed at what we observed and provide a video and a few images below... It Continue…
Off the coast of St Augustine Florida there lies a shipwreck that has been known to local anglers as the "Bear Wreck." Recently the sunken wreckage has been identified as the remains of the infamous missing ship the Cotopaxi by Michael Barnette and LAMP ( Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program). A team of scuba divers investigated the wreckage and produced this Continue…
Artificial Reef Pre-Deployment Survey Harms Ledge Permitted Area 10-4-19 Final Report Prepared for: The City of Jacksonville Water Quality Branch Environmental Quality Division Environmental & Compliance Dept. 407 N. Laural Street, Suite 300 Jacksonville, FL 32202 Re: Jimmy Dales Tugboat Reef Pre-Deployment Survey Permit No: SAJ-2007-00264-SCW Prepared by: Kistel Media LLC Summary: To verify an adequate reef Continue…
7-10-19 The Jacksonville Offshore Sports Fishing Club and supporting organisations hosted a dockside fishing event for children with special needs today. Lots of fish were caught and smiles were made. One young man landed a red fish with a bunch of spots, another a nice sheep head, and even a few stingray and toad fish were landed. We used a Continue…
In the fall of 2018 concrete double "T" structures (built and provided by Gate Precast) were placed in the Ocean to create marine habitat and the Starship Reef, A Coastal Conservation Conservation - Building Conservation Trust- Shell project. These reef modules have been in the ocean just over a half a year and are already covered in marine life and Continue…
The United States Coast Guard deployed several large concrete blocks to create marine habitat at a permitted artificial reef site offshore Mickler's Beach St. Johns County. The blocks deployed were retired navigational aid anchors. They once held large floating buoys in place but had expired their service life. USCG Sector Jacksonville and the Captain and Crew of the Maria Bray Continue…
