Day four on the island:
This morning changed a little bit; we were given an extra 45 minutes to sleep in. It was a tremendous surprise to hear the night before. For breakfast we met the Dive BVI staff at Mr. Kirby, Doc, and Mrs. Boyle’s cabin for breakfast. Later we left for for the boats, where we met Joel. Joel works for the government in a Marine Biology sect, head of the CFD. His main focus is the study of endangered sea turtles. The people who are on Sea Monkey boat, got to to tag sea turtles first. The people on the Sea Dragon and I went to Savannah beach to see invertebrates in a touch tank. Savannah Beach is famous because it is supposed to be the place where Harry Styles and Taylor Swift broke up. Sarah and Jessica collected many species of invertebrates such as: flamingo tongue snails, fire worm, lettuce slug, sea urchin, and un-identifiable species of crab. My favorite is the flamingo tongue snail. It covers it’s body in its mantle, which is like”covering your entire head with your tongue,” said Casey. Later we got back into the water for some adventurous snorkeling. We spotted a couple lettuce slugs and a fire worm. The sea urchins are all over, in rocks, under rocks, and sitting in the sand. Once we got back from the snorkel, we met the Sea Monkey’s students, hopped on the taxi and left for the marina. We got back onto the Sea Dragon and set out for our first stop for turtle tagging. We were towed behind the boat at 14 knots, around 12 mph. I found the first turtle, in which I raised my hand to let everyone else know that I located a turtle. As my teammates got into place, we pursued the turtle in a set formation. We tried again and again, swimming deeper and deeper. The closest we got was touching the shell of the turtle. A little later we packed up and went to Little Dicks Bay. The moment we pulled up both teams of six spotted turtles. Almost immediately Luke Kelly pulled up a green turtle, ready to be tagged. We put fin clips onto the turtle so that they could later be tracked and found. For dinner we went back to the restaurant at the top of the baths for Asian cuisine. They had really good sushi!
