Ty Morin – Marine Bio 1

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Day one on the island:

My wonderful day started off with waking up at 7am and getting ready for the day. I took a quick shower, the. I realized that I had packed everything but a toothbrush. I used the next best thing I could find, my finger. I then proceeded to the cattle guard where everyone meets in the morning. Our tour guide/taxi driver, glen, who drove us north to a little conference room. After finding our spots and getting settled, breakfast was served. It was a hearty breakfast filler with fruit, eggs, bacon, and toast. Later after breakfast we started a debate between blackfish, an anti-sea world documentary, and the captivity of killer whales at sea world. Behind the lines of the sea world stage, you find out the whales are stolen as juveniles and then brought to a sea world tank where they will be trained to do tricks for or amusement. In the end the debate ended in a draw. Arts and crafts were next. We got to make shark hats out of paper plates as an interactive activity for all of the group. Then we took a short break where a few fellow friends decided to jump in the pool adjacent to room. Casey, the head of Dive BVI, set up a PowerPoint for us to ID all kinds of underwater organisms. My favorite was the blue tang. It starts life with a bright yellow body. Overtime, the fish changes color to a bright electric blue color. While taking we found out that some fish start life out as a female and then change into a male at adulthood. Next was lunch, French fries and Mahi Mahi on wheat bread. Soon after that we packed up our stuff, got back on the bus like taxi, and headed off to the marina. I am going to be staying on the Sea Dragon for the week with my trusty dive buddy, John Wengierski. We took a short boat ride to a bay off do the Dog Islands, where we dropped a dive anchor. Our first scuba dive in BVI was amazing. We dove down to about 30 feet and swam around what is known as the chimney. The chimney is a long narrow channel with rocks above and all around you. Little tiny cup corals were covering every possible inch of the passage way and the only way out way to squeeze between two massive rocks. It was an amazing sight coming out of the narrow escape. All you could see was crystal clear water with light shimmering through and schooling fish swimming all around. We shortly surfaced after that and rushed home so that we could make it to mass on time. Mass took place on top of a beautiful Rocky Mountain, overlooking the entire island. Later we made it back home to change and head out to the beach for lasagna, breakfast and, cookies. I finished off the long day buying a toothbrush at a little general store and then walking to the cabin, immediately falling asleep.