Yesterday in BVI we had a very busy day of turtle tagging and snorkeling which were experiences I will never forget. The day started with breakfast and a short class, taught by Dr. Shannon Gore, over different types of turtles and how to tag them. Once we had been instructed on how to catch the turtles, marine 1 loaded up on the Sea Monkey and headed out. The first method we used to try to catch them was being towed by the boat while looking down to spot a turtle.There were not any turtles found this way and I suffered a few jellyfish stings. I was not a fan of the tow method to say the least, but the next place we went to redeemed my bad experience. We went to Little Dix Bay where several turtles where roaming around and thankfully no jellyfish were spotted. After about twenty min of chasing the sea turtles Luke Gomez pulled up a 40 lb green turtle that took three guys to pull onto the boat. This turtle had already been tagged but it was still very cool to see the process Dr. Gore goes through when she’s with her team tagging turtles. After the turtle tagging, we ate lunch then headed to the Baths, where Sarah gave us a tour and explained how they were formed. After the tour we snorkeled thought them down to guavaberry beach where we hung out and ate dinner on the beach before a night snorkel. The night snorkel was a really cool experience to see all the nocturnal organisms that you can’t see during the day.
Today, after a good nights sleep after the busy day I had before we went to the rone dive sight where I snorkeled with Doc. The rone was a ship that sank in the 1860’s due to a hurricane, and the ruins still lie on the ocean floor today. After snorkeling the rone, we headed to Cooper Island where I ate the best fish and chips I’ve ever had. Once everyone finished eating, we snorkeled throughout the sea grass at Cooper Island. We headed back early to guavaberry today so we could get ready for mass. After mass we ate at Top of the Baths and settled in for an early night because we were all still very tired.
