Like any morning, eating breakfast at 7:00, and going on the boat at 8:00. We set out to the first location, which was called Sand Hole.
Sand Hole was fairly close to where we were staying, only about five minutes away. This was one of the deeper dives, since I went all the way down to 80 feet. Sand Hole consisted of reefs that contained many coral fingers and tons of different coral, as well as brightly colored fish. 20 minutes into the dive, I saw a Hawksbill Turtle. I spotted the turtle feeding off of some coral on a ledge. Once finishing eating, it started slowly ascend to the surface. I was able to swim under the turtle for about 20 seconds. I was not able to identify the turtle at first, but after doing some research, I found out exactly what it was. About a minute after seeing the turtle, I saw something else that was very interesting. The animal that I saw was a very big pufferfish. It was about the size of the Marine biology water bottle. It seemed like it was just resting on some coral. I couldn’t see it at first, due to it being camouflage. I tried to scare it so that it would puff up, but was not lucky. The amount of coral and fish that was in this location made it much more pleasing to look at.
The second location was named Ocean Pointe. This was similar to the last dive, the only difference was the depth. I was only able to go about 60 feet down on this one. The first creature that I saw was a Lemon Ray. Technically, the proper name is Yellow Ray, but locals call it the Lemon Ray. The dive master pointed it out, but I could not see it. The Lemon Ray was extremely camouflage and very difficult to spot. Some of my friends could not spot it as well when I was pointing it out. Our dive master, Bernie, told me after the dive that it was a Lemon Ray. The second organism that I saw was a very long Trumpet Fish. This is one of the easier fish to identify, due to the long and skinny body. The trumpet fish was about 2 feet. It seemed like it was feeding off of some coral, which was very funny to watch.
This has been a very fun trip, and hope to come next year. Teachers, thanks for everything!
