I set my alarm today for 7:15, but was awoken many times before by various loud roosters outside our cabin. We got our stuff together and met up at the cattle guard, then went to the Internet café where we ate breakfast. This consisted of donuts and cereal. After breakfast, Dr. Gore, the head of sea turtle research for the BVI, gave us a presentation on various types of turtles and how we were supposed to catch and tag them. After this, we split into our two boat groups, Sea Monkey and Sea Dragon. Sea Monkey, my group, began the day snorkeling and playing on the beach, while Sea Dragon went to attempt catching and tagging turtles. The beach we went to was Savannah Bay and we could see both the Caribbean Sea as well as the Atlantic Ocean from the road. We went to the Caribbean side and snorkeled while learning about invertebrates. We saw various urchins, many other fish, and even saw a porcupine fish hiding in a cavern in the reef. When we concluded our snorkel we grabbed a snack on the beach and had a discussion on invertebrates and classified them. We had, in a bucket, a few types of urchins and sea slugs. We held these and observed them so we could classify them. We then played frisbee in the water and hung out on the beach for a while. After this, we met the other boat group at the marina for a lunch of burgers and fries. They did not catch a turtle, but we were optimistic that we would. After lunch, we went to the boat and talked more about catching the turtles. We were to be dragged by the boat on each side, two groups of three, and when we spotted one we were to let go, raise a hand, and try to sneak up and lure the turtle towards shallower waters. The first group of six did not see any. Joe, Marco, Christian, Doc, and Mr. K, and I went and Joe immediately spotted one. We followed it but it traveled to too deep of water and we lost in. Immediately after, a couple more, a Hawksbill and Green, were spotted and we split into groups to catch them. The green stayed at the bottom for a while but we caught the Hawksbill and returned to the boat. We then took pictures with the turtle, measured, and tagged it. The turtle was named Chad. We then released it back into the water where it quickly sped off. My group of six then went in again to be dragged by the boat, a couple were spotted but we could not get any of them for they were too deep. We then returned to the marina, got all our stuff, and returned to shower before dinner. We all met up and walked over to Mad Dogs. We had a delicious dinner of lasagna, hung out at mad dogs, and completed our dive logs. We then returned to our cabin to pick up our iPads, and then, went to the Internet café in which we are all blogging now. A very entertaining and exhausting day in the BVI.
