Mike Prangley of Jacksonville’s First Coast News discusses recent lionfish sightings with TISIRI’s Joe Kistel. Lionfish are not new to the waters of north east Florida but this is the first reported TISIRI sighting in the area since 2009. Lionfish sightings are a concern because lionfish are not known to have natural predators in non-native Atlantic waters,they are aggressive eaters, and reproduce at early ages. The fear is these animals will severally deplete populations of other native fish and invertebrate species.

TISIRI’s Joe Kistel discusses lionfish encountered offshore St. Augustine Florida with Action News Jacksonville.

On each dive divers reported encounters with lionfish. This is somewhat of a surprise as TISIRI divers have not encountered lionfish offshore North East Florida for the past few years. The pictures above are proof of the encounters.

Join us March 29th at 7pm for a look into the underwater world of Jacksonville Florida. TISIRI will introduce offshore scuba diving and fishing destinations of North East Florida, the wild animals living there, and how some of these reefs systems came to be. Furthermore we will discuss TISIRI’s upcoming efforts and describe how interested [...]

TISIRI’s New Dive Boat