Upon waking up this morning in a warm and humid Virgin Gorda environment, not many of us knew how fun and exciting the first day would be. After eating breakfast, we discussed our schedule and things we learned in class that could be implemented in our later diving. We ate lunch and were off to our first activity. Sea Dragon, my dive boat was chaperoned by Dr. Todd Gruninger, Casey McNutt, and Brian Higgins. While Mr. Higgins and Mrs. McNutt lead dive teams into the water Dr. Todd Gruninger snorkeled above and took pictures.
Photocred: Dr. Todd Gruninger
We completed basic dive skills once my dive group, made up of Guy Harris ’14, Jeff Melsheimer ’14, Christian Koeijmans ’14 and myself, reached the warm, 82 degree seafloor. After Mrs. McNutt pointed out several species of coral, a tube worm, and countless small fish, that we would have been hopeless in identifying ourselves, she also successfully killed three Lionfish, an invasive marine fish that destroys the habitat. We eagerly dissected these fish upon returning to the shore, and in the process learned about their anatomies and painful stingers. Our first dinner in the BVI came around, and it couldn’t have been more entertaining. We feasted on pizza at Mad Dog restaurant and then devoured brownie sundaes. We kept ourselves busy with some comedic corn-hole in which a single team comprised of Guy Harris and Tucker Reed, commanded the competition and won themselves coke floats. They relinquished their spots after they tired of demolishing other teams. Finally, we sat down and watched two informative presentations on Global Warming and Invasive Marine Species, and a fun time was had by all.
