Our second to last day of diving began like it normally does, but this time our dive sites were farther than the previous days. We were going to be diving two shipwrecks, the Doc Poulson and the Kittiwake. We arrived on site and jumped into the water excited to see the giant ship. The first thing we noticed was one of 4 massive anchors holding the giant in place. We swam towards the Kittiwake and noticed that the condition of the ship was much better than expected. It had only been underwater for about 8 years, but most all metal was still in tact and only small amounts of coral had began to grow. We entered the ship from the front and began making our way back through the different rooms. Small sea sponges, identifiable by their long tube shape, appeared in many colors throughout the ship but not much else had been able to grow yet. We exited the ship and made our way back to the boat, where we headed to out next shipwreck, the Doc Poulson. This boat was much smaller than the 200ft Kittiwake. It was only about 60ft but had been underwater for nearly 30 years. The boat was surrounded by fish and coral, and lots of the metal had been warn away by the salt and currents. We swam around the boat looking at the eroded pieces of metal when I noticed a large cloud of fish swimming overhead. The fish were large and had about 50 in the school. They were oval shaped, silver, and had yellow tails. They are known as yellow jacks and during certain times of year, their can be schools of up to 700 surrounding the shipwrecks. We continued swimming around the reef until our dive master, Lucy, stumbled across something resembling an octopus in the rocks. The animal was stuck to the rocks, had many tentacles, and had a white color. Lucy said that it was a giant anemone and that it can grow up to 12 inches. The giant anemones are found between 15 and 100 feet, and can be white, gray, and yellow/green. We soon had to return to the boat, but our day was not over yet. We headed back to the resort for some lunch and then left right after to collect trash from local beaches. The trash was everywhere coming in from the ocean and from construction sites. We picked up trash for an hour strait and then returned back to the hotel and disposed all 7 bags filled to the top. We ended the day with another game of pool volleyball and then dinner at 6:00.
