We woke up around 7 and ate breakfast just like yesterday then headed to the marina. The first dive we went to the coral nursery that various environmental agencies support. Dive BVI takes care of this coral and grows it on a pvc tree. What we did when we went down there was clean all of the plants that were growing on the coral. The only type of coral on the tress was stag horn coral which is a major part of the reef ecosystem. The coral that they are growing is purposely placed in a high wave zone so it’s stronger than normal grown stag horn coral because it’s more sturdy. It was very interesting to learn about the process of coral reef restoration. After we finished the dive we went to another island but I can’t remember what it is called. At this island we did our first dive for our marine bio research project which I explained in my last post. What we exactly did was we got out a tape measure and measured forty feet in one shaded zone and two open zones. We then traveled along the measured line and wrote down what we fish we saw and their color to help understand if there is a correlation between the color of fish and light. So far we haven’t had enough evidence to support our hypothesis so we will have a few more dives to do later on. During the dive we saw a ton of fish and swam through a tunnel which was really cool. The best fish I saw was an eel that was very large on the ground. This dive was definitely the best dove so far. After this dive we went to another island to have lunch and on that island the guy that owns Bacardi has a sweet house in the mountains. After we ate lunch we snorkeled to shore and looked at a salt pond. I never knew what a salt pond was and how important to the environment it is. A salt pond a pond that develops a few 100 yards behind a shore and it helps take pollutants out of the water like pesticides. We then snorkeled back to the boat and saw a sting ray and a turtle on the way. I am very looking forward to the night snorkel tonight and hope to see and invertebrate such as a squid, octopus or cuddle fish.
