Last week during the second dive off the coast of St. Augustine TISIRI's Kistel came across a pair of bat fish in what appeared to be a staring contest or face off...

...Kistel found the fish in the staring position and they continued to stay in the face off formation throughout his observations. The video above shows a brief moment of this encounter but they entire experience was over 5 minutes long. In fact, during his videography and photography efforts Kistel occasionally disturbed the fish times causing them to temporary relocate. Within seconds though the fish would return to the location where I found them in there staring position. At one point Kistel was even able to handle one of the bat fish to show a closer view to the camera.

In the video you will see a segment where Kistel actually takes a picture of one of the bat fish while a photo of the bat fish appears in the video. This photo is the exact photo taken of the bat fish at this moment in the video. The visability was not ideal on this dive for detailed video but there is no denying these are very interesting creatures!

This concrete culvert artificial reef is located offshore St Augustine Florida at an area known as "Nine Mile" reef. This area is at the north end of "Nine Mile." This reef is a relative close distance to the St. Augustine inlet providing fishermen, scuba divers, and spear fisher easy access to offshore recreational activities.