Today was our first day diving here in Virgin Gorda. Our first dive at the George Dog Island started at around 9:00 AM. We went down to the ocean floor and practiced the basic skills of scuba dive as a reminder from our scuba certification class. We then swam around the dive site, getting a feel for both the marine wildlife and scuba diving again. Using the underwater slate, our instructor was able to identify species of coral and fish for us. We were also able to see an eel up close. We then boarded the boat and headed to our second dive site, Great Dog Island. Here, the wildlife was much more prevalent. More colorful and plentiful coral was present, meaning more fish were out and about. We were able to see a large permit fish swim right next to us. As we continued along the dive, we came up upon the chimney, a big structure that we swam between containing a huge variety of wildlife. Reportedly, a reef shark was present, but it was scared off before our group reached the chimney. We then exited the chimney, swam around for a little bit longer with our instructor pointing out more wildlife with her underwater slate, performed our safety stop, and exited the water. We drove back on the boat, cleaned off our scuba gear, and ate lunch to finish off the morning. In the afternoon, we met with our dive instructor about our research project: placing dye around different barrel sponges to determine how the length of each diameter of a barrel sponge affects how fast the water filters through the sponge. Our project was approved, and we will be beginning in the next few days. Throughout the dives, our instructor was able to point our barrel sponges, the topic we are studying for our research project later in the week. It provided me with an idea of what the sponges look like in the BVI and where they are located in relation to depth and wildlife around them. As the trip goes on, I am looking forward to seeing more of the marine wildlife in the BVI, and I am also looking forward to our research project on barrel sponges. 
