In the summer of 2009 the retired United States Coast Guard Vessel Spike was sunk off the coast of Jacksonville to create marine habitat. This summer makes 5 years since the deployment. TISIRI divers made several visits over the summer months to observe the current condition of the reef. Today the vessel has already become a flourishing reef. The brief video story below shows the dramatic difference between when the vessel was underwater on day one and now.
Read MoreMandarin High School Reef Balls
In the summer of 2009 several reef balls created by the students and faculty of Mandarin High School were placed 12 miles offshore Ponte Vedra Florida (Grant FWC-08259). This past Sunday the reef balls were visited to examine their progress as reef structures and below is brief compilation of video clips of the now thriving habitat.
Read MoreNational Geographic Features TISIRI Reef Cleaning Efforts
Earlier this month TISIRI divers headed offshore Jacksonville Florida to clean-up marine reef habitats. Popular reef sites were targeted assuming they would have accumulated the most waste material over time. National Geographic published a brief video story of the day's reef cleaning efforts (watch it...
Read MoreTISIRI and Visit Jacksonville Official Scuba Diving Promo
Visit Jacksonville and TISIRI teamed up to produce a video promoting the scuba diving opportunities in Jacksonville Florida.TISIRI's Joe Kistel, Larry Davis, and Ed Kalakauskis visited a dive site known as the Monahan Tug. It was a beautiful day and the underwater conditions were perfect. Kistel...
Read MoreMischeivous Octopus Dismantles Underwater Camera Housing
Earlier today TISIRI underwater cameraman Joe Kistel stumbled across the same Octopus encountered last week (when it took a great interest in diver Kim Fair). Kistel hoped to make amends with the octopus from last weeks encounter and allowed it to investigate the camera housing. Everything...
Read MoreNortheast Florida Lionfish Blast Harvest Video Story
We recently published our video story of a lionfish control team that was sent offshore during the Northeast Florida Lionfish Blast Tournament. The divers on this trip collected over 200 lionfish with both spear and live capture techniques. Check out the story below:
A Curious Octopus Encounter
While offshore to capture imagery for an ongoing production project we stumbled upon a curious octopus. Videographer Joe Kistel was filming and as soon as diver Kim Fair approached the octopus darted over to greet him. See the intense encounter at the link below.Video:
A Look at the Sunken Spike 5 Years Later
6-14-14In the summer of 2009 Safe Harbor Boys Home provided a retired United States Coast Guard Vessel to the artificial reef program. The vessel, known as the Spike, was meticulously cleaned, transported offshore, and sank roughly 28 miles east of the St Johns River Inlet. Today...
Read MoreUnderwater Reef Imagery From Press Box Reef And More
6-7-14Below are some underwater images and a video clip captured this past weekend while offshore scuba diving Jacksonville reefs. A big thanks to fellow divers Larry Davis and Ed Kalakauskis.Press Box Reef:
[nggallery id=140]Culvert Reef:
[nggallery id=141]Open Barge Reef:
[nggallery id=142]Large Shark swim by video clip (at Open Barge Reef):
Goliath Grouper Sighting At New Reef Site
5-31-14 TISIRI divers Joe Kistel and Larry Davis made a trip offshore to capture some updated visual content of Jacksonville Florida's three newest artificial reef sites. These three reefs lie roughly 12 miles east of Ponte Vedra Beach. During the second dive, just before returning to the surface,...
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