This trip just keeps getting better and better. Today was another great day with a two tank dive, some snorkeling, and then mass and dinner. We woke up at 7:30 and headed down to the gate to get picked up by the taxi. We went straight to the marina and ate breakfast there. After we finished we went over to long bay, virgin gorda to dive. We started with a snorkel to map out the area and look for some dying coral that we could save and replant. After this we went back to the boats and started the first of the two tank dive. On this dive we harvested staghorn and elkhorn coral for replanting. These are the best coral for the base of the reefs because they are very sturdy and provide protection. The heating water and disease are causing them to die so we are trying to replant the coral in safe areas to grow. We dove for 56 minutes and we found a lot of cool elkhorn towards the end. At the end of the dive we ended up with 12 staghorn fragments and 5 elkhorn fragments. We rested for about an hour then started the second dive. In the second dive we planted the coral that we harvested. We zip tied some coral fragments to other solid parts of the reef to promote growth. This was really cool and in the words of Mr. Kirby “we extended the Jesuit campus today!” after the dives we headed back to the resort and got ready for mass. The church we went to was really cool! It was on the top of some hill and the view was awesome. Mass was good and after it we had lasagna at Maddogs. We watched our group projects and then came back to guava berry. Now it is time for rest and tomorrow we do the Jesuit service project down here.
This is staghorn coral that is diseased.
We took part of it that was still alive and attached it to a sturdy piece of the reef.
