I woke up at 6 a.m. because of an obnoxious bird outside of my window. I went to our kitchen and brewed some Folger’s columbian coffee for the cabin and sat at the table looking out the patio to the ocean. After everyone got up around 7:15 we all chilled at the kitchen table drinking coffee until about 7:50 when we grabbed all our gear and walked to the commissary to get breakfast. I ate a peanut butter bagel, some grapes, and yogurt for breakfast. After breakfast we headed straight for the baths. The baths were full of abundant and sizable eroded granite boulders. In the bath areas there was section called the cathedral, it was a beautiful spot, and has been used in previous Sports Illustrated Swimsuit magazines as the scenery. After the baths we walked to the water and began our hour long snorkel. During the snorkel I saw a variety of different fish species: angel fish, butterfly fish, snappers, grunts, squid, trunk fish, fairy basset , trumpet fish, flounder, a lobster, parrotfish, damsel fish and some squirrel fish. We then went to the beach and ate some lunch. I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After we had satisfied our hunger we were taught by Caitlin about identifying fish species in the Caribbean. Then we got a ride from glenn to the docks where we loaded up on the Sea Monkey and departed for West Dog Island. Right as we arrived a tropical storm hit, but it didn’t effect our diving because we were being briefed while the rain passed over head. We then began our fish identification dive, while on the dive we saw the lion fish, a notorious invasive species introduced to the US and Caribbean in the late 1990s. However we were unable to harvest them because our instructor didn’t have a spear gun. The lion fish is hunted in the Caribbean because it is deleterious to the food chain because it eats all the grazers and small fish. While diving Wall to Wall we were able to see an abundance of different corals such as the elk horn, stag horn, brain, finger, and fire coral. There were also an abundance of sea fans which looked really cool. At large the most numerous species of fish was the Sergeant Major The best part was as the sun came out while we were underwater everything just popped and became alive. After diving for around 45 minutes and identifying numerous fish species we boated back to the dock where we disassembled the gear and got it off the boat. Next, we received a ride from Glen to Guavaberry where we were given about an hour break before dinner in which we all showered. Then, we went to Mad Dog’s and ate some ham and cheese and onion wraps with pasta and potato salad. While at dinner I tried a grapefruit soda named ” Ting” which is a local soda. It was pretty sweet, but it was delicious. After finishing dinner we learned about the coral transplanting process and the results from last year’s effort. We also learned about what we are going to do better and different this year so that we may have better results. At last we walked back to the cottages where we are going to get some rest before lights out at 10 because we have a long day of learning about invertebrates and sea turtle tagging.
Andrew Suarez
