Day three in the BVI was the busiest so far, as it included three snorkel trips and a dive. Once again, the day started with a delicious breakfast that led us into Laura’s wonderful fish identification presentation. The presentation gave us a great idea of what we would be finding on our morning snorkel, as well as any other dive this week. We learned how to identify several categories of marine life such as sponges, coral, mollusks, and crustaceans. Following the presentation, we went to the Guavaberry beach to snorkel, and put to use our newfound identification skills. During this snorkel, I identified several parrotfish, moon jellyfish, and a gigantic school of blue tangs. After we were called in, we ate sandwiches on the beach, threw the frisbee, and took a look at some live organism samples that Casey and Brian collected during the snorkel. In the viewing tubs were placed a moon jelly, a few sea pearls (huge unicellular, spherical algae), sea urchins, an arrow crab, and a few varieties of sea slug. We read to each other information about each species out of identification books, and then we took a few minutes to touch each organism if we were so inclined. Then we had some free time, and I chose to continue snorkeling, and during that time I came across some grouper, several parrotfish, more blue tangs, and a trumpetfish. After this, we went straight to the marina to prepare for our afternoon tank dive. We dove the ledge created by the largest of the Dog Islands, swam through giant boulders, and experienced a variety of vibrant colors of rock, algae, and coral. On this dive, we encountered some squirrelfish, parrotfish, arrow crabs, a pufferfish, a trumpetfish, a grouper, as well as a wide variety of sponges. After the dive, we had time to dress, and then we headed to a church at the top of a hill for mass. Outside the church was a beautiful view of the island, where we posed for a picture. After church, we headed back to the Guavaberry beach for a delicious and fun cookout, courtesy of Jeff and Casey, followed by a night snorkel. Since there was a bit of a jellyfish scare yesterday, we all opted to wear a full-body wetsuit to protect us from the jellies’ nematocysts, just in case we couldn’t see one in the dark. Because our hands and face were still exposed, we frequently checked in front of ourselves and each other for harmful jellyfish with our flashlights. On this snorkel, I came across several jellyfish, a gorgeous octopus, a couple tarpon, many shrimp, blue tangs, and plenty of worms. When we left the water at about 9:20, we helped clean up, and headed back to our cabins for so,e rest after a tiring day.
