Vincent Miranda Day 4

0

Today the quest for marine life continued while the Marine Biology-2 guys went to Nacker Island to check out the various mammals residing there and us Marine Biology-1 guys went out to study a plethora of invertebrates. The shallow reef where we dived was absolutely incredible and the snorkel consisted entirely of us searching for invertebrates in the various cracks and crevices of the shallow bay reef, which was absolutely littered in corals and fish which was wonderful to see. The whole goal was to locate as many invertebrates as possible, and we managed to find a large fireworm, lettuce slugs, cleaner shrimp, various crabs and a few sea urchins. These amazing creatures were very much displeased with us catching them, but in the end they were unharmed and released with no implications. Lunch came very shortly after and was preparation for our main event later on: Turtle tagging. The tagging took place on our boat the Sea Dragon, where we were towed behind with little ski ropes and we traveled approximately two knots per hour. I went out first with some of my group members and we were tugged for around 15 minutes before letting other groups try their luck a few times. In the end all we ended up was lungs full of sea water, but the thrill of turtle chasing was phenomenal and I honestly wish to come back and try again some time. Afterwards was very relaxed and all we had to do was relax and play cards and finally wait for dinner and barbecue on the beach. The burgers the great and the sunset was even greater, and after dark came another round of dancing where I perpetrated the infamous dance move, the worm. Another project group went out to collect data on bioluminescence and we headed up and off to bed for another exciting day in the BVI.