Waking up around 7:15, there was a rush to get to breakfast on time at the Internet cafe. Upon arriving at the cafe we ate a delicious breakfast soon followed by a special presentation on turtles by Doctor Shannon Gore. She explained the evolution of turtles seen in the Caribbean consisting of Loggerhead, Green, Hawksbill, & Leatherback turtles. She also explained the different processes of catching sea turtles. As soon as she finished her presentation marine 1 boarded the taxi bound for Savannah Bay, brimming with clear blue water & surrounded by a pristine white sand beach. The snorkel was perfect because of how close the reef was to the surface. They were so close that at one point we would almost get beached on the reef & have to maneuver out of it. It was still a great snorkel & we saw many interesting invertebrates such as a West Indian sea egg, a large sea urchin with loads of short white spines that it uses to camouflage itself, & a huge spiny lobster. After coming back on shore there was a tropical storm, similar to the day before, yet this one was much larger & lasted longer. During this thunderstorm some of us decided it was warmer & safer to swim in the ocean, an idea that actually proved to accomplish both, yet leave us soaking wet when the cab arrived. For lunch we ate burgers at rendezvous point & managed to keep up with the British Open too. Following lunch we set out to catch sea turtles with Doctor Gore using the manta tow, which she explained to us during lunch. As I understood it was basically them dragging us behind the boat as we search for sea turtles that are far faster than us & difficult to see, so basically I wasn’t sure if we’d even see anything. Shortly after searching for a while & being dragged through countless patches of jellyfish Nick Byrne spotted one swimming into deeper water & chased after it. He followed it until it hid in a patch of coral, & by that time Austin, Zach, & I hopped off the boat, which was where we were sitting while Nick, Nick, Matt, & Suarez were being manta towed. We then proceeded to chase it for just around 200 yards into an area of sand in the middle of coral after it tired out, where we surrounded it & were joined by Caitlin. She communicated to us that we needed to catch it from behind in order to capture it. So I went down with her 25 feet & swooped in from behind & took the turtle to the surface where it freaked out & started thrashing around & slapping everywhere. We took it back to the boat & measured it & named it Slappy because it kept slapping its stomach, we also stuck a tracking device into it & returned it back to the ocean. Special thanks to Doctor Gore & all of Marine 1 for allowing me to even capture it because I only went down & captured it while the other actually did the hard work. Then we ate an awesome dinner at Mad Dogs consisting of lasagna & salad. Can’t wait for the RMS Rhone dive tomorrow.
