Back in the early 80′s press boxes from Jacksonville’s old Gator Bowl were transported offshore and deployed in 80 feet of water. Thiswa an intential project in order tocreate marine habitat. The press boxes were ideal reef material having been constructed of heavy steal. Since then the location has become a popular fishing and scuba diving location off the coast of Jacksonville Florida. It is curretnly referred to as Press Box Reef.

TISIRI has encountered two separate unexplained plane crash sites offshore St. Augustine Florida recently. We conducted a preliminary investigation of both wreckage locations this past week and collected the imagery below. The first group of pictures and video is from a crash that included two Lycoming piston engines. The later group of pictures contains aircraft components that we have not been able to identify yet. Please review the pictures and let us know if you can provide any further insight in the comments section at the bottom of this page.

7-24-12 Jessica Clark of Jacksonvilles’ First Coast News interviews TISIRI’s Joe Kistel regarding the recent aircraft wreckage discovery. See Jessica’s complete story here

While investigating a plane wreck site this past weekend TISIRI’s Joe Kistel made a strange observation. He noticed what looked like a partially buried black sea bass that was lying on its side. Kistel assumed this was a dead sea bass that had become buried by scavengers but notice the eye exposed was following his (Kistel’s) every move. Kistel then thought perhaps the fish was ill as there have been reports of sickly grouper sightings lately and continued on with wreck investigation efforts after taking a few photos. Several minutes later he encountered another buried the same way in sand and captured a few more photos.

This month’s Coastal Angler Magazine features an article from TISIRI’s Joe Kistel describing a recent dive investigation of “Jax Wreck” aka the wreckage of the Gulf America. Click on the image below to read the article.