Lionfish Podcasts

Tiffany Duong is an Ocean Explorer who gets stories about her adventures to hungry readers around the world. She heard about our submersible project and stopped by for a couple of days to learn more.

Her mission is to involve and inspire others to see our world in an entirely different way – and to want to save it.

She hold degrees from UCLA (international development) and University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (climate, refugee, environmental law) and is a trained climate reality leader with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. She lectures at the University of Miami Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and writes for the Keys Weekly Newspaper group.

When she's not campaigning for the planet, she can be found scuba diving the Florida Keys, out on expedition, or searching for the world’s best cheesy fries.

Submersible Operations Students Amy, Lisa and Christine at Seacamp. Another group of students tell us their experience with the Submersible Operations course. A special thank you to Seacamp for letting us host this course at their beautiful location in Big Pine Key Florida.

Submarine Reality

There are many realities when it comes to the submersible/submarine space. Here are the top 3 that prevents people to pursuing their career as an ocean explorer.A new submarine/submersible for personal use starts around 3 million dollars. The realty is most people will not be purchasing one of these anytime soon.

There are only a few opportunities around the world to get a submersible pilot job and those are filled by pilots with hundreds, if not thousands of hours of experience.

You can get trained on these expensive submarines if you want to spend in excess of $30,000 or more but what does that mean? Your 12 hours of training experience probably won’t get you an interview for any of these cool positions around the world.You don’t need to spend millions of dollars to purchase a submersible/submarine. You also don’t need to spend in excess of $30,000 to get 12 hours of experience operating one. There are alternative way to explore the oceans depths. Our training gives you the tools and hands-on experience to get into the submersible space for a fraction of the cost of the expensive ones. Realistically you can find a small submarine and have it sea worth for less than a new or used boat. This is the reality that we focus on in our courses. We want more people hunting lionfish in the waters deeper than divers can go. We want more citizen scientists protecting the reefs from the invasive lionfish. Our submersible/submarine courses are designed to help those who want to make a difference possible. Unleash your passion and help us save the reefs! We have developed Submarine Courses to inspire future marine conservationists! We have put together 3 courses that are packed with knowledge and hands-on experience. These courses helps you go through the process of becoming a submarine pilot and put that knowledge to work. Join us on this important mission!

Submarine Courses

We have developed Submarine Courses to inspire future marine conservationists! We have put together 3 courses that are packed with knowledge and hands-on experience. These courses helps you go through the process of becoming a submarine pilot and put that knowledge to work. Join us on this important mission!

The Incredible Seacamp with Camp Director Judy. Seacamp hosted our Submersible Operations course on property. It was the perfect setting for a course like this. If you ever get the chance to experience Seacamp - take it! It will create a memory of a lifetime!

Seacamp is just 30 miles from Key West in the beautiful Florida Keys, Seacamp shows the way to the sense of wonder within you that will last a lifetime. Through its marine science program, underwater exploration and study beckon you to a world apart.

Blue water and coral canyons teeming with invertebrates, fishes and mammals will enrich your understanding of that larger, watery portion of our planet where not only tomorrow will live ... but you, as well!

Seacamp is minutes from the only living coral reef in all America. Here you can see an almost endless variety of marine life forms as they existed eons ago, before some emerged from the sea to become mammal ... and man.

Seacamp is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and your donations are tax deductible. Click here to donate or learn more.

Meet Dowla F Al-Suwaidi

She is a postgraduate from the University of the West of England in Bristol UK were she earned two Masters in Environmental Consultancy and Wildlife Conservation in Practice. In 2022, Dowla reached out us to learn more about the lionfish and their impact on the coral reefs.

Dowla is from the middle east where not everybody knows how dangerous these fish can be in other regions, and how was easy it is for them to adjust anywhere in different waters. Here she worked on her dissertation project studying why lionfish are considered an invasive species and different methods of management, while in her last years in UWE-Bristol. Additionally, she was able to document the first dive testing of the submarine in Florida-Keys with both members of the lionfish central and she was the first passenger to dive in the newly designed submersible.

For her part, she was able to spread awareness and teach different groups of people at the science fair in the UK when presenting her dissertation project. As a result, many people became educated on how these fish caused damage in the Caribbean and the Atlantic reefs. That was Dowla reached back out to us to contribute and play a role in spreading awareness globally.

Dowla traveled all the way from Qatar to join this unique course, Introduction of Submersible prepared by captain Scott Cassell and Myself (Mr. Scott Gonnello) on 16th of March 2023. She said it was worth the 20 hour flight and 9 hours on the road. She recommended this course to people globally in hopes they would join and learn more about the submarine, as she believes this course will open up new doors in marine conservation practices. It will help spread awareness, promote the marine life, help discover and protect the undiscovered depth.

Dowla helped by designing the technical page for the submarine anatomy diagram for the submersible course, as well as contributing good images to attract viewers on social media and incorporating these images into the course book. Plus she played a role in designing the new project “Lionfish expedition passport”, by adding the needed logos and layout works for the lionfish central, providing new ideas and feedback to make it better in the future.

Dowla is currently working on designing a program to allow different student both locally and abroad to join the courses that will teach them about the invasive lionfish, as well as learn how to get involved in protecting and maintaining healthy reefs, help in spreading awareness and knowledge throughout the world.

Submersible Operations at Seacamp with students Blaine, Salty Locs, Rachael and Dennis. We had a great conversation about the training and operations of the Lionfish Patrol Submersible. A special thank you to Seacamp for letting us host this course at their beautiful location in Big Pine Key Florida.

There are many realities when it comes to the submersible/submarine space. Here are the top 3 that prevents people to pursuing their career as an ocean explorer. 

You don’t need to spend millions of dollars to purchase a submersible/submarine. You also don’t need to spend in excess of $30,000 to get 12 hours of experience operating one. There are alternative way to explore the oceans depths. Our training gives you the tools and hands-on experience to get into the submersible space for a fraction of the cost of the expensive ones. Realistically you can find a small submarine and have it sea worth for less than a new or used boat. This is the reality that we focus on in our courses.

We want more people hunting lionfish in the waters deeper than divers can go. We want more citizen scientists protecting the reefs from the invasive lionfish. Our submersible/submarine courses are designed to help those who want to make a difference possible. Unleash your passion and help us save the reefs!

We have developed Submarine Courses to inspire future marine conservationists! We have put together 3 courses that are packed with knowledge and hands-on experience. These courses helps you go through the process of becoming a submarine pilot and put that knowledge to work. Join us on this important mission!

Submarine Courses

Nate started a nonprofit when he learned about the invasive lionfish. He works hard to help keep his reefs as free of lionfish as possible. That's a huge task considering our large the ocean is even in his area. He is an incredible tattoo artist and between the 2 he stays very busy. We met a few years ago briefly but stayed in touch over the last few years. His passion for the ocean is great and his efforts are greater!

Christine is another character in the comic book Lionfish Reef Heroes. She is a scientist, a conservationist and an entrepreneur. Christine has also been a friend of Lionfish Central and does her part to help rid our waters of the invasive lionfish!

Meet Angi. She is one of the coolest characters when it come to marine conservation. Her entire life has been around and in the ocean. Even her work keeps her living her passion and dream when it comes to being one with the ocean. She is also a character in the comic book Lionfish Reef Heroes.

If you follow any of the lionfish community posts on social media or YouTube you've probably seen Julie's posts. She goes by the name SaltyLocs. She is passionate about hunting lionfish and protecting the reefs both in Florida and in St Thomas. She is also a character in the Lionfish Reef Heroes comic book. In fact, she is the only character that was not made into a cartoon - instead we used her SaltyLocs logo because it was so cool! We have talked and emailed and social media texted for a couple of years so it was great to finally get together to meet in person and do the podcast! 

The Antigua Open Lionfish Tournament and Festival took place in November of 2022. It was 3 years in the making due to Covid lockdowns and restriction. The event had a great turnout and the islanders came together to help make this the biggest one to date. From children to the elderly, everyone came out to learn, taste, view and win prizes - lots of them. Steven was one of the person's that helped organize this event and secure the funding along with other islanders. He and his wife also hosted Holden Harris and I while we were there to run the event. They were so gracious and great to be around and they really made this event and the trip enjoyable. We can't thank them enough for all they did. Here is a conversation I had with Steven about the event and other marine environmental projects.