After a short and brief breakfast in the morning, the class set out into deeper waters for a scuba experience. The first location that we set out to was named “Schoolhouse.” The name of the second location was “Rainbow Reef.”
Schoolhouse was a very interesting experience due to everyone starting out and beginning their first dive for the week. The first fish that I spotted was a blue-headed wrasse. Although it was one of the smaller fish that I saw during this dive, it was one of the more beautiful fish that I’ve seen. Their bright yellow head was very easy to spot and fun to look at. To be honest, it was much smaller than I expected, but it is one of more beautiful fish that I’ve seen. The second fish that I saw was definitely my favorite so far, the Black Durgon. This fish was was pitch black with very thin white lines separating the fins and the body. The thing that intrigued me the most was the way the fish swam. The Black Durgon has two fins, one on top of the body and one on the bottom. The fins would move at an opposite direction which was very intriguing. The third fish that I spotted was the Sergeant Major. This was the easiest fish to identify, due to the multiple quizzes we’ve had on them. The thing that shocked me was that the sergeant major looked exactly like the pictures that we studied, which is why it took no time to identify it underwater.
The second location was much more fun in my opinion. Rainbow Reef seemed to have more marine life and much more diverse species. The first fish that I spotted was the Princess Parrotfish. This was the biggest fish that we have seen so far during the trip. Weirdly, the fish actually started to observe and follow us. This shocked me due to most of the fish being shy and scared, therefore leading them quickly moving away from us. The fish started to follow under us throughout the entire dive which was very cool. The second animal that I encountered was the White-Spotted Lobster. It was in a cave which made it a lot harder to look at, but the white spots all over the back were very apparent and fun to look at. Although the lobster was very cool, the experience to look at it was definitely not. The lobster was located under an archway which made the whole experience extremely crowded. I would constantly get pushed or pulled which was very annoying. The third fish that I saw was the lion fish. The lion fish is known to be very poisonous and go to another direction once spotted. These animals are known as invasive species, which means that they damage many organisms in an ecosystem. In fact, it is legal to kill any lion fish onsite due to the danger that they bring.
The last activity that we did today was a discussion that was held about a location by the name of Stingray City. One side was the positive effects of the location, and the other side were the negative effects. I was defending the positive impacts that Stingray City has on the Grand Cayman Islands. Although there were no clear winners, both sides learned about each side and was a fun little activity.
