The game worked as follows…
Participants were given a booklet containing five different marine animals and three labels each with a name of one of those animals contained in the booklet. The players were to match the names with the correct marine animals in the picture booklet. For each correct match the player was rewarded a bean bag toss. Participants then would try to toss bean bags through an open porthole. Note: this port hole was removed from a previous marine habitat creation project. For each bean bag toss that successfully made it through the port hole window the participant received a fossilized shark tooth.

The game was a big hit! We rewarded players with over several hundred sharks teeth and were able to introduce the marine life of North East Florida to many curious minds.

TISIRI would like to thank MOSH for the opportunity to participate and all the MOSH patrons that visited our booth. A very special thanks Anna Deloach of Reef.org, Ed Kalakauskis, Quinn Riesch, and Zoe for helping facilitate the activities. Look for more exciting games at future events!

MOSH Water Educational Festival A Success is a post from: TISIRI

East of St. Augustine Florida, in about 85 feet of water, lies the remains of several Grumman A-6 Intruder aircraft. These fuselages are not the results of the jets crashing into the ocean, but in fact were placed here on purpose. Yes these aircraft bodies were deployed in the ocean to create marine habitat.

TISIRI divers visit the reef to collect visual media for TISIRI’s Reefs Revealed project. Below are pictures and video of the Intruder Reef and its inhabitants.

Pictures:

Video:

The reef area consists of several aircraft lying in various postures. Some aircraft are independently spaced and others are in clustered piles. Several fish species were encountered during this particular dive with a high abundance of tomtates, highhats, and the occasional grouper. Visit the Reefs Revealed page for more information (including coordinates) regarding this reef site.

Intruder Reef Reefs Revealed Page, Click here.

Intruder Aircraft Reef added to Reefs Revealed is a post from: TISIRI

While collecting video and photos of the intruder aircraft reef site off the coast of Saint Augustine Florida, TISIRI’s Joe Kistel was able to capture this footage and pictures of a very large moon Jellyfish. Even though Jellyfish have stinging nematocysts on their tentacles, used to capture prey (often small fish), these juvenile fish swim within the Jellyfish with noticeably no concern. How do they avoid getting stung and ingested?

It is thought the small fish actually use the shelter of the Jellyfish to avoid other predators. The stinging Jellyfish may deter possible would-be predators of the fish, thus giving the little guys a fighting chance in the an ocean where anything bigger then yourself wants to eat you. The trade off is that the small fish have to avoid the tentacles of the host Jellyfish themselves or have a physiological means to avoid the sting of the nematocysts.

A related Jellyfish article is posted here.

Giant Jellyfish Encounter is a post from: TISIRI

Thanks for your continued support and interest in TISIRI. We look forward to another busy year in 2012. Happy Holidays to everyone!

Happy Holidays from TISIRI is a post from: TISIRI

Large Nurse Shark Encounter is a post from: TISIRI