Today started off with a 615 am run with my group members, shortly after we got ready to go scuba diving and eat breakfast. Breakfast was the same thing as yesterday but my cabin prepared it this morning so that was pretty cool because we got to lead in prayer. After prayer we started to eat but not before people started saying happy birthday to me. Today was going to be an amazing day I figured and indeed it was, because 1) it was my birthday and 2) we got to go night diving and then test out our projects. So right after breakfast we got dressed up and gathered all of our gear together and headed out to green who is our designated taxi driver every year we come. Once we got to glen he greeted us and took us to the docks to load the boats with scuba tanks and gear and go scuba diving. Once we were on the boat everybody was very ancy to get in the water and test out their projects . We had to go to a different location than intended because in the original location the current was to strong and was pulling the anchor flotation device under water. So once we got to the next place we eagerly got our gear on and awaited permission to get into the water and start our decent down to the sandy bottom of the ocean. I met my group members at the bottom with Jeff who would be overseeing the whole operation we were undertaking. Jeff took us to a sandy secluded area with little life so that we didn’t disturb anything then we tied a line to a 5 pound weight and attached a glow stick to the line and measured how far we wanted the glow stick to be from the bottom and to see if the glow stick would stay boyount or if it would start to sink. We came to the conclusion through testing that the glow stick would indeed support one of our hypothesis that it would indeed be boyount. After we undid the string and everything else and put it in our bag Jeff took us around the reef. We saw so many different kinds of fish at this reef. It was super cool because we actually got to swim through the walls of the reef. We saw a bunch of fish feeding and swimming around us, and seemed to not be scared of us which was really cool because we got to get really close to them and observe how they act in their environment. Then out of no where Jeff told us to stay put and pulled out his spear gun we then saw what he was focused in on, a lion fish. It was a small one but it was very important we killed it because it had no natural predator in this part of the world, the lion fish was taken from Europe to here where it soon killed a lot of marine life due to the fact it had no natural predators so they over bred. So it was critical we killed this lion fish to help eradicate this parasite from these waters. The act itself was swift and quick Jeffs gun pierced the lion fish without warning. The was no blood nor guts or any other substances or remains of the fish floating in the water just stab wounds. Jeff for good measure then he cut the head off of the lion fish. After that whole event we ascended back up to the boat because our group was done setting up and testing and de constructing our expire end while other groups were still testing below us as we boarded the boat. The second dive was a just a regular exploration dive like the ones we had through the past two days. Then we ate lunch on the boat which was provided by our gracious hosts Casey and Jeff. Then we snorkled out to the beach and hiked up to the salt pond which unfortunately was completely dry but we saw a bunch of salt remains on the ground we even got to taste it, it was very strong. Then we snorkled back out to the boat and headed back to the docks to go sort out our plans and final adjustments to our projects that we were doing tonight. Once me and my group talked everything over and made our final adjustments we headed out to the beach and set up our experiment and headed back to the beach to go eat dinner. Jeff cooked all of us some burgers and we ate on the beach it was an awesome cookout. Right after the cookout me and my group members headed out to the glow sticks in the ocean and started our timers and observed which glow stick the blue or the green one would attract more fish during the night. Our results were not what we expected the blue light attracted a lot of tiny fish like a lot but the green light attracted fewer fish but they were much bigger. Our hypothesis was one would attract more than the other but we now realize that the size of fish does play a role in it so we will have to back and re evaluate how to fit that into the equation of which glow stick attracts more fish. Well we are making preparations for tomorrow night till then.
