Today I woke up and went on a wall dive. This dive was on a wall that went down 4,000 ft. So far this was my favorite dive because of how curious I was to look down into the abyss. On the wall dive today I saw a spectrum of fish from a baby spotted drum to a hawksbill turtle. The juvenile spotted drums is one of the prettiest and majestic fish in the ocean. They have two long tails and can sometimes be referred to as a jackknife fish. I saw two tarpon swimming in pair but they were farther out from the wall. The sea turtle was a joy to see too. Sea turtles are such lovable animals that whenever I see one I become happy. The second dive today there were not many rare fish to see but I enjoyed it none the less. I liked slowly going along admiring all the types of coral. All the little creatures living in the different nooks and crannies of the rocks are some of the coolest animals. Most divers go in the water including me looking for big fish but when you are able to focus away from big fish and sit for 10 minuets staring at the same rock you begin to notice the little animals that normally no one sees. On the second dive I did see some bigger fish, I saw some of the biggest parrot fish. These parrot fish were about 3 to 4 ft long and I believe they are rainbow parrotfish but I’m not entirely sure because I am having a difficult time remembering the colors of the fish. I think they are rainbow though because rainbow parrotfish have really defined beaks that almost mimic those of a parrot and the massive parrotfish I saw had those types of beaks. The beaks of the parrotfish help the grasp on and peel off the algae from the rocks. After the dives we ate lunch then headed out again for a stingray city dive. This was a static dive so we all sat in a circle around the dive master who was holding squid. Ten or so stingrays came over to the dive master trying to get the squid. The dive master then swam around us so the stingrays would swim on us. These stingrays were like big dogs they followed the food but sometimes stopped for an occasional pet. One of the stingrays even tried to eat two of my fingers getting them all the way in their mouth up to the second knuckle. I was ok though because the stingray have two plates in their mouth that grind the food together making it into a paste so they can eat it. They basically have vacuum cleaners for mouths. There eating style is almost exactly like that of a nurse shark because nurse sharks also have two plates and grind their food up. The only problem with stingray city is that feeding the wild life can hurt them and make them change their natural behaviors. I don’t think it’s a problem because it is shown that after feedings the stingray will go off and hunt for food how it normally does. The stingray are also in the open ocean so if they ever want to leave stingray city all they have to do is swim away. After stingray city and dinner we watched a documentary about the ocean. I really enjoyed watching the documentary but one part that really upset me was when they talk about shark finning. I am completely against the finning of sharks because I believe it is unchecked and is inhumane and should not be done. When they showed that 90% of sharks have died do to shark finning got me even more angry. I don’t understand why Asian countries still allow shark finning and shark fin soup, it is a horrible practice. I understand that it a cultural thing but there have been many cultural practices in many cultures where people in that cultural have been like wow this is really unjust and should be stopped. I think shark fin soup is one of my those things that needs to be completely outlawed around the world. Sharks are such a vital part to the ecosystem and by killing them all off the whole ecosystem could collapse if there in no apex predator to keep the other animals in check. Well, that is all for tonight I am excited to dive again tomorrow.
