Third day in the Cayman Islands is done! Back in the water with two morning dives like normal. Unfortunately nothing extraordinarily of note, but it is still cool to see so many different fish. Today I saw sergeant major, a queen angelfish, which was a lot bigger than I thought, another lionfish, and loads of French Grunt. There was a large school of French Grunt swimming around which was super interesting to see.
I got to thinking about how fish learned to swim in schools and why they do so. Fish have evolved in such a specific way that they are able to swim together in oerfect unison. This allows them to stay safer from predators. It is easier to seek out a solitary fish rather than pick one out from a group. Schooling up also reduces friction between the fish, letting then swim much more efficiently through the water and using less energy as a result. On top of these factors, fish have evolved very sensitive perceptive abilities that allow them to sense and respond to slight changes in direction within the school. This is what makes schools so fluid and unified. I thought it was interesting to see suchan evolutionary marvel up close, even though the school of fish was fairly small.
Later, we visited a turtle center, which was exciting initially because of the turtles themselves. However, the turtle center became a point of controversy within the group due to the apparently poor conditions the turtles were living in. Nonetheless, we experiencd the whole park and bought a rum cake and shared together for dinner! It’s such good cake!!! Then we had a discussion surrounding tomorrow’s site: Stingray City. We discussed whether or not it was an ethical practice, and I learned a lot about the place and what benefits and disadvantages it could have. I am excited to see it r gardless and cannot wait!
