This morning TISIRI's Joe Kistel and Nate Tucie visited the Spike. It has been roughly nine months since the deployment and the Spike is becoming quite the artificial reef. The vessel is completed encrusted with marine growth; 2 inches thick in some areas.
We entered the water around 10:00am and we were immediately greeted by a pod of curious dolphin (porpoise). On our descent we knew we were close to the Spike as we swam through schools of large amberjack. We saw the ominous vessel once we neared the seafloor and the area was packed with sea life. She was holding very large grouper, one over 4 feet long!! I thought it was a goliath at first but it was a large Gag!! Baitfish were everywhere as well as a few barracuda, plenty of sea bass, and spadefish galore (to name a few). The relatively new artificial reef was covered in sea urchins and marine growth.
See pictures in our gallery section or go straight to the gallery.
[…] Capt Don Learn of North Florida Charters led us on an artificial reef site dive trip today. Our main objective was to perform a photographic dive of the Spike and to inspect its progress as an artificial reef. We were able to complete or efforts on the Spike in one dive. See our article of this dive here. […]