This morning, once again, we woke up at the early hour of 7AM, well rested and ready for a busy day of diving. We ate a hearty serving of breakfast and then boarded our sturdy boat, the Twin Sister. With some help from our reliable dive masters, Bernie and Curtis, we safely made it to our first dive site, Hepp’s Pipeline. Here, we embarked on a dive with a maximum depth of 80 feet. On this dive I saw a large trumpetfish exhibiting a really interesting hunting strategy. First of all, I was able identify the trumpetfish by its long and skinny body, it’s long ‘snout’, and its upturned mouth. I first saw it hovering along the side of some coral, and then it turned itself on its head, moved into the coral, and changed its color to match that of the coral. It has a very acute sense of memory that allows it to perfectly mimic the color of the coral it’s trying to blend in with. By blending in with the coral, it makes it easy to hunt its prey. It can easily pop out of the coral and surprise any unlucky victim. On our second dive, we went to a site called Spanish Bay. Here, we saw an extremely wide variety of rare wildlife, including lobsters, lion fish, trumpetfish, and juvenile spotted drum fish. We saw two juvenile spotted drum hiding in a small cave. I didn’t know how to identify them without some help from Bernie. Now, after seeing them, I know to identify them by their small bodies, their vertical black and white stripes, and their massive u-shaped tails. After the dives, we ate lunch, played some pool volleyball, and rested before heading to Stingray City. At Stingray City, we all sat in a large circle and the dives masters used bottles full of squid to attract the stingrays. The stingrays that we saw were called southern stingrays. Their mouths are not full of teeth but instead have 2 grindstones that they use to grind up their food. The top of their skin was very rough but on their undersides they felt very smooth. Bernie compared their undersides to a “wet mushroom” and I found that comparison to be extremely accurate. This visit to stingray changed my viewpoint on whether or not Stingray City was inhumane. I thought that it was bad for the stingrays but after experiencing it first hand, I see no problem. It allows stingrays to eat food in a healthy environment while being protected. The stingrays were very friendly and they never once made me feel uncomfortable. Finally, we ended off the day with some dinner and a debrief about the prayer service that we will be creating.
