This morning, the group and I began the day with a wonderful breakfast of eggs and pancakes. The Twin Sister voyaged us out towards the site. Our first dive of the morning took place in the Big Tunnels. Dive master Bernie lead our group down into the depths of the sea to depths near 80 to 100 feet. My buddy and I stayed back in the pack to enjoy the scene and see fish others may not have had the chance too. We needed up sneaking a peak among several tarpon floating amongst the tunnels. This group of tarpon was very slow moving, almost as if they were faking death. Flowing only with the current and no fin movement, the tarpon were a very interesting fish found. The common parrot fish and banded butterflyfish populated the tunnels. Another round of blue tang schools flew by. Blue and yellow headed wrasse huddled sporadically within brain corals and sea fans, along with many initial phased wrasse. Ocyurus chrysurus schools scattered around us as we reached the moray lines.
We set sail to our next dive set, Bonnie’s Arch after our quick break. Bonnie’s Arch is known for the large amounts of Fairy Basslet. Fairy Basslet are a very special type of fish. Their color patterns of the scales is half purple and half yellow. These fish live their lives entirely upside down compared to the rest of their environment. Schools of Basslet were surrounding the Arch and the whole site. After traveling through the Arch, we were able to explore more along the dive site. From our exploration, my group and I came around a vehement sneaky trumpet fish. From talking in class, we all knew that the trumpet fish is able to camouflage to its surrounding environment, and we struggled to see it. The way the trumpet fish was able to not only blend in with the color of the sea plant, it was also following the movement from the ocean current, making it look just like a branch. Our last cool find was a ginormous crab. We could not determine whether the crab was alive or not, but the fact of seeing such a large crab was amazing.
After dinner, the who class watched Mission Blue, a documentary film based around Sylvia Earle, a female oceanographer and environmental activist. The filmed taught about the problems faced with over fishing, and the lack of oceanic protection in the world. This lack of protection presents the entire world with problems, problems scaling from food loss to climate change. The biggest aspect of the film that stuck out to me was shark poaching and the treatment of the catch. Fisherman reel in the sharks, cut off the fins, and throw the shark back in with no regard of life. The problems mentioned throughout this film are detrimental to the Earth if action is not taken. Luckily, some countries such as Australia have begun paving the way for oceanic protection.
