After waking up and eating breakfast we took a ride in the vans to the boats, ready and excited for our two wreck dives. The fist was at the USS Kittiwake which was sunk in the Caymans in 2011 at a depth of 70 feet, but after a large storm came through it tipped on its side and now lays at a 70 degree angle. While in commission, it recovered the black box from the challenger and saved a submarine. After being submerged for about 8 years the ship has a large layer of algae and has started to grow larger corals on it as well. When swimming around the 251 foot wreck I saw many large princess parrotfish the can be identified by the rainbow stripes running horizontally down the fish. On average they are 20 to 25 cm long and swim through coral and sandy patches looking for algae to feed on. Sense they feed on algae it makes sense that they were at the wreck because of the large amount of algae growth along the metal. Another fish seen when swimming around the wreck was the blue tang, they can be identified by their bright blue body with yellow on their tail fin. They can grow up to a foot and live for about 30 years in the wild. They feed on algae and plankton giving reason for them to be swimming among the wreck feeding on the algae around the boat. After circling the large vessel we went to the surface and took the five minute boat ride to the next wreck site.
Once arriving at the Doc Poulson dive site we debriefed then submerged ourselves in the water ready for another dive. It was named after Doctor Poulson who was a doctor who gave free check ups to diver masters on the island and brought the first decompression chamber to the island. When swimming through the coral I saw juvenile spotted drum fish and fairy basslets. The spotted drum fish can be identified by their vertical black and white striped and the long curved rear fin that looks like and upside down fishing hook. They swim through the coral searching for night crabs and shrimp to feed on. The fairy basslets are very small in size and can be identified by their purple front and yellow rear, they also have a black dot on their dorsal fin. They are know to swim under ledges and caves along coral reefs helping us to be able to identify them since they were under a ledge at the base of a reef. Their diet consists of crustaceans which they can find on and around the coral and their max length is three inches. Their predators consist of eels and grouper which can also be found along the reef. After swimming around the boat that has been their since the 70s with great coral growth we ascended to the surface and went back to the resort for lunch.
After finishing lunch we went to a near by beach for the clean up. We were at the beach for about an hour and cleaned up water bottles, plastic and styrofoam that have been washed up or left by people on the beach. By removing this trash from the beach we are helping fight against the human footprint that people leave on land and in the ocean, which harms the underwater world that many people come here to see. I look forward to our final two dives tomorrow.
