This morning we gloomily woke up around 7AM, disappointed that our last day of diving was already upon us. We ate breakfast and got ready to dive around 7:45. For our first dive of the day we went to a site called Sand Hole. Here, we followed the edge of a mini-wall, which was packed with coral, sponges, and fish life. It had a sheer drop off to a sandy bottom. Because of the large amounts of sponges, while following the mini-wall, we saw two hawks bill sea turtles snacking on some of the sponge. I knew it was a hawks bill turtle because of the jagged lateral scoots, the beak, and (even though I didn’t see this it’s still a key identifying factor) the two pre-frontal scales. It used its flippers to grip onto the edge of the mini wall to eat the sponge. It’s sharp beak is used to tear bits of sponge away. As we approached it, it didn’t seem very intimidated by our presence. It moved from sponge to sponge, slowly working around the wall, until it eventually swam away. The second dive was at a location a location called Ocean Pointe. This dive site was very close to our resort and, once again, it was a mini-wall. We saw lots of squirrelfish on this dive, tucked under ledges of coral. They have large eyes, spiny dorsal fins, and a red and white color. Prior to the dive, Bernie mentioned the possibility of seeing a lemon ray. A lemon ray is a small ray that is a sandy yellow color. It has large white spots around the outside of its body and it is covered with smaller black dots as well. It camouflages itself in the sand to hide from other animals. We ended up seeing a lemon ray near the end of the dive. It was somewhat buried in the sand and it was very hard to spot out because of its color. After our last dive, we went back to the resort and played some pool volleyball and ate lunch. Then, we got our stuff ready to go, ate dinner, and had our prayer service. The prayer service was a great way to reflect over our experiences and to help put into perspective how luck we all are to have an opportunity like this. Our flight leaves tomorrow afternoon and then, just like that, we’ll be back in Dallas. Thank you so much to Doc, Ms. Matthews, Mr. Marr, and Dr. Kirby for making this trip everything that we had hoped it would be.
