5-13-11

TISIRI's Reef inventory efforts continued off the Coast of St. Augustine Florida. Today a mature concrete culvert artificial reef was documented. The video below shows the reef and its inhabitants. Look for the Goliath Grouper, Flounder, butterfly fish, and much more. More details of the event below the video...

...TISIRI's underwater cameraman Joe Kistel joined friends of the Ancient City Game Fish Association (ACGFA) to observe and document reefs off the coast of St. Augustine Florida.

The boat departed the Conch House marina prior to 8 am and at the mouth of the St Augustine inlet the sea conditions became rough. Once clear of the inlet markers the seas cleaned up slightly. Our first reef destination was 16 miles East and the Seas were a sloppy 3-5 feet the entire way there.

Once the vessel arrived to the intended location another boat was already anchored onsite. Our boat Captain CJ and Steve Blalock decided to visit another reef to avoid possible confrontation. The chosen site is what is featured in the video above. A concrete culvert, concrete rubble artificial reef in about 75 feet of water. The site is very mature and is estimated to have been created in the 80's.

Videographer Kistel and Spear-fisherman Blalock dive down to the reef and begin observations immediately. Visibility appeared about 30-40 feet which aided in video efforts.

Throughout the dive Kistel captures reef animals,reef structure, and encrusting growth with his camera. Interesting finds included a Goliath Grouper, a very large vertical standing culvert pipe, and a large Gag Grouper.

Initial observations lead to a positive conclusion on the state of this particular reef. Marine life diversity is strongly apparent, encrusting growth appears healthy, and the reef structure is largely intact showing no obvious signs of deterioration.

Another great artificial reef thanks to the efforts of many!