After an early morning alarm, two flights, and a bus drive, we arrived at Cobalt Coast Resort, ready to explore the enticing waters. To begin our experience, we snorkeled off the shore of the resort with a buddy. Ben Levis, my partner, and I were very excited to get into the water and swim around. We started to swim around, seeing large leafy plants and little plants that looked like cacti with many branches. One thing we both noticed was that there were many sea urchins. Based on some of our lessons on marine food chains I know that urchins can be a primary consumer in the chain providing energy to the rest of the chain. It makes sense that there would be sea urchins everywhere, allowing the food chain to maintain balance and run smoothly. We also saw many fish we recognized such as the Blue Headed Wrasse, Sargent Major, File fish, Blue Tang, some Parrot fish, the French Grunt, and the Four eyed butterfly fish. My favorite of these was the French Grunt because I really appreciate the intricate line patterns as well as it’s light blue and yellow color. The Spotlight parrot fish was also very cool because its bright green color was unique in the environment. I also learned about a new type of fish today, the Squirrel fish. The squirrel fish is a small orange fish with large black eye, who likes to hide under rocks. While following another fish, I spotted the little fish under a rock and didn’t know what I was looking at. But thankfully Ms. Matthews was able to inform us about what it was. I really enjoyed my first snorkeling experiences and look forward to my next chance to get in the water. One last fun thing I got to see were the hermit grabs on the beach. The little guys were everywhere and were all different sizes and had different shaped shells. The first day of this trip was truly exhausting but also so much fun.
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