Today we dove two reck dives, one being the kittiwake. The kittiwake is a 251 ft rescue ship for submarines in the navy. This ship did not have that much marine life on it because it was moved during a hurricane in 2017 killing most of the reef that had grown on it. There was however a ton of fire coral growing on it. Fire coral has a bunch of hairs that sting if something touches it. This sting hurts really bad but I heard if you put sand over a sting it will stop hurting. I saw some spanish hogfish swimming around the boat. You can tell them apart from regular hogfish because they are bright yellow and purple on the top. I saw a clam on the kittiwake, this clam when it opened its mouth had a huge pearl in it. I haven’t seen a clam before so I was really excited and used up like 100psi just looking at it. I also saw some sea cucumbers which sat on the sea floor barely moving. In the next dive it was another reck but this reck was to small to spend a whole dive on so we dived a reef right next to it also. While diving the reef I saw a huge rock fish, rock fish blend in with the environment so they are hard to see and that helps them avoid predators. I also saw a giant anemone, a soft coral that is rare in the caymans because most of the corals in the caymans are hard corals. After diving around the reef we went and dove around the boat, there was a huge school of yellow jacks. These yellow jacks were big like each a foot and a half long and they swam together in such grace. Schools of fish can swim in such grace together because they have sensory organs on the tail that can feel the water from another fishes movement. When the fish feels this he too will move the same way the other fish moved. Fish swim in schools because it decreases the amount of energy a fish has to use because the fish in front are swimming right into the current lessening it for the fish in the back. Being in a school also helps the fish be less venerable to attack. Predators don’t like attacking schools because huge numbers of fish are able to defend themselves easier than a singular fish. I can’t wait to see more schools of fish tomorrow during my last two dives in the Caymans.
