For our last full day, we ate breakfast at 7:00 per usual. Our same wonderful breakfast of bacon and eggs tasted delicious and we began to head to our first site. The first site of the final to dives was Sand Hole. Sand Hole was a super cool site as it was the first time I have ever seen wild turtles. We saw two hawksbill turtles that were decently sized and were swimming along the huge reef. They were eating sponge that was attached to the coral and the rest of the reef. I was able to tell they were hawksbill because of the mouth of a bird; the curve and the point at the end. The second aquatic life I saw that stood out to me was the lobster we found under a overhang. The lobster’s pattern of white and red was easy to spot, yet we had trouble seeing the lobster as he was tucked back in the cave.
The second location we visited was Ocean Pointe. The dive site was named after the resort right on the coastline named Ocean Pointe as well. My buddy and I spotted 3 of these very interesting fish we have never seen or heard of. Their main body color was black, with the tail end being yellow. The main feature of this fish, however, is a multitude of blue light dots on the top of it’s head. These dots looked as if they were illuminated through the fish and it’s genetic adaptation to the surround ecosystem. My buddy and I also saw 3 trumpet fish varying in sized along Ocean Pointe. The trumpet fish always fascinated me with their elongated bodies and their ability to camouflage within the sea fan and coral.
The last event of our trip was a prayer service brought together by the students. Each room prepared different slides based on certain events and experiences we had been apart of throughout the trip. My group was to reflect on our time at Stingray City. Luke, Sam, and I agreed on how our perspectives had shifted form our original thoughts and debate we had earlier in the week. Our experience amongst the stingrays and seeing the reality of the city, to me, was different than expected. My view point originally was against stingray city because all I had was statistics and opinions, but I never had a chance to see and experience the city until now. The stingrays are well taken care of and the city is used to help preserve and feed the population and allow it to grow. Overall, the prayer service was very touching as I was able to hear and see opinions from throughout the trip that agreed and challenged my own.
