The day began similarly to yesterday in that we didn’t have to wake up to the sound of a rooster. We then went back to the main building to have doughnuts that could have passed for tires. During breakfast, Dr. Gore came to give a presentation over turtles and the importance of the tagging. We then split into boat groups, and mine went to a beach. While at the beach, we went on a snorkel to find invertebrates. Caitlin then brought them back for us, and we examined and identified them on the beach. Some of the ones we found were sea urchins, sea slugs, and a West Indian Sea Egg like the one we saw on the first dive. After talking about each of them, we had free time on the beach. Having slept very little the past few days, several other people and I decided to catch up on some much needed rest while other people continued the frisbee throwing game. After this, we went back to the marina for burgers and fries. After lunch, we played with Jeff and Casey’s dog, which turned out to actually be an ‘Olde English Bulldog’ and not a boxer. We then went onto the boat to discuss the intricacies of turtle tagging. We went over how to hold them and how we needed to work as a group to successfully grab them. After a 10 minute boat ride, we threw two lines behind the boat and put 3 people on each. Jeff then started the boat and tugged us along as we scanned for turtles. Unfortunately, my group of 6 didn’t see any, so we got back on and switched shifts. Within 30 seconds, the other group had spotted one, and we were soon all in the water frantically chasing after him. After following him for several minutes, he dove down to about 50 feet and we were forced to give up the chase for him. Once they told us to disperse, we swam back towards the shore. Apparently during this time another turtle was spotted and we all followed it, but the results were the same. With a dozen guys and Jeff all situated over the turtle, I figured that I wasn’t going to be able to get to do much with this one, so I began looking around for others. While looking, I saw somebody diving down to what I assumed was another turtle. When I got closer I found Mr. Kriby, Doc, Mem, Laura, and Casey following one about 10 feet deep. We 6 then encircled it attempted to grab him. At one point, I had him in my hands, but he twisted behind my head and I had to let to. Thankfully, Mem was close by to grab him soon after. We then brought him back to the boat and called in everybody else. After taking all the obligatory pictures, we measured and named him. His name was Chad in honor of the alter-ego of one of the other guys. After wishing him good luck in his future endeavors, we released him back and began searching again. Exhausted from swimming well over a mile, I went to sit on the top of the boat. Not long after, I saw one off the side of the boat and everybody else immediately jumped in and headed in what they thought was the correct direction. However, they were slightly off, but had I stayed on the a little longer and followed Jeff and Laura in towards where we had seen him. We got very close to the shore, and were at most 2 feet above the coral when we spotted him again. We followed him along the side of the shore before he went further out. At this point, only myself and Doc had kept up with him, and had ourselves positioned in front of and behind him. With just two of us, it was nearly impossible, and he managed to get out our reach. The chase wasn’t over however. We knew he needed to breath soon, so we kept following him and watched as he slowly raised to the surface. Once he was finally able to get a breath (which we were trying to prevent until we could catch him), he dove down to about 60 feet and we knew that it was basically over. Slightly upset over the missed opportunity, we all climbed back on the boat and plotted how to best brag about our accomplishment to the other boat group. We then went back to the marina and then the resort to shower and get ready for dinner at MadDogs. For dinner, we had lasagna. Following dinner was dive logging from yesterday. Shortly after, we went to blog.
Still no luck on my personal pictures, but this is one of my holding Chad, the turtle that we caught, courtesy of Doc’s camera.
