Matthew Hellinghausen '13

Today was about giving back. To tell you the truth, this amazing week wouldn't have been possible without the months of preparation and hard work of the Dive BVI Team, Mr. Kirby, Doc, and Speedy. Many people don't realize that this is Jesuit's first stab at trying a class like this, and a lot of people are looking at...

I awoke to the shouts of my bunkmate, Sean, running through the cabin exclaiming that rain was pouring in through our open windows. My bed was perfectly dry so naturally, I just laid there and watched the chaos ensue. The rain quickly put me back to sleep so well, that not even the alarm clock woke our room up....

Today was a major dive, a two tank dive. A two tank dive is a dive in which you complete a normal dive, followed by a surface interval (about 45m- 1h) which alleviates excess nitrogen from your blood, then another complete dive. Our first dive site was the wreck of the RMS Rhone, a ship which wrecked during a...

Today began with our usual routine, breakfast and class at Olde Yard Village. Today's class was an introduction to Reef Check, an organization responsible for collecting data on what kind of fish and how many lie within reefs all across the world. We practiced laying transects, lines that we use as a guide when we conduct the reef checks....

Today began as usual, with a delicious breakfast at Olde Yard Village. After, we held two classroom discussions, one was over the importance of Coral Reefs and their role in our ocean's ecosystems and our lives. The other was over fish identification, where we looked at pictures and characteristics of common fish in the BVI and discussed how we...

After a alarm clock malfunction, we awoke and organized our gear for the day. After a brief orientation session with the hotel's owner, we boded our taxi, Speedy's, for breakfast. We arrived at a beautiful hotel and were greeted by our four guides for the week. Sam, Andrew, Casey, and Jeff. They walked us through the program and highlighted...

We began today by completing our dissection of the Dogfish Shark. We examined the nervous system of the shark, which was very interesting. The most surprising thing about the shark was the size of it's brain. The shark is about as long as an arm length, yet its brain is about the size of grape. We then discussed two...

Today's article discussion was over two very interesting articles, one over unique marine adaptations and another over the effect of ecotourism on Great White Sharks. The first article was interesting because it showed that evolution plays a key in the survival of organisms. The second was also interesting because it addressed a controversial topic. Many people argue that ecotourism...

We opened today with our daily article discussion. After Andrew and Sean presented their article, Alec and I presented ours. Our article discussed what is known as natural biocontrol. Biocontrol is the use of one species to eradicate another. The lionfish is an invasive species that can upset the delicate ecosystems in the Atlantic ocean. Originally from the seas...