After sightseeing and absorbing the awesomeness of the BVIs for a while, today we helped contribute to the health of a coral reef ecosystem by transplanting elkhorn and staghorn coral. In the morning, we woke up, and our diver Glenn took us down the marina for breakfast. While eating. Drew gave me the fantastic idea of using a breakfast omelet as a taco – folded in two with bacon in the middle. After breakfast, we shoved off and headed over to Long Bay, where we snorkeled to scout for coral specimens and locations for transplanting. On the first dive of the day, we harvested specimens of elkhorn and staghorn coral, either by finding live, healthy pieces that were broken off already, or breaking small nubs off ourselves. We then surfaced and ate lunch, which consisted of peanut butter, strawberry preserves, and ham, and I found (not surprisingly) that I was the only one eating such a sandwich. Our second dive was replanting the coral nubs which we had harvested previously. We used zip ties to graft the branches of coral to already anchored coral bases, and special underwater epoxy to bond the coral nubs to rocks and coral skeletons. Put into groups of four, my group was called team awesome or the dream team, or Andrew, Drew, Clayton, Laura, and I. The other group front the boat Sea Monkey was called phantom apache, with Matt, Will, Richard, and Julian led by Jeff. My specific task in our group was to record the tag number, species, height, width, and number of points that each coral piece had, and I got to write on underwater paper with a pencil while trying to maintain neutral buoyancy. Our group successfully transplanted a total of twelve pieces of coral, eight staghorn coral pieces and four elkhorn pieces. After we returned to the marina, we attended mass at the St. Ursula church, which had an incredible view of the western part of the virgin islands. To wrap the day up, we had an Italian dinner at Mad Dogs, where we talked with Laura and Jeff, and watched our videos about ocean issues. Thanks Dive BVI staff for a great time and great experiences today and for the past few days!
Staghorn coral formation in Long Bay
