For the second day, we dived near an island called Ginger Island. The first dive took place on a reef called the Ginger Steppes, which where a series of pelagic shelves that steadily went downward. It was also our deepest dive, with a maximum depth of 65 ft. We were told that the area has a diverse population due to the high amounts of nutrients that flows through the reef. Within the first few minutes, we saw two reef sharks, who followed us through much of the dive. Apparently, some of them were fed lion fish in an attempt to get them to pray on the invasive species, but the program had the unfortunate side affect of teaching them to expect hand-outs from divers. The dive was fairly eventful, not only did we see the sharks, but we also saw a lion fish, a pair of spiny lobsters, and a huge porcupine fish. After a snack and a twenty minute break, we started our first project divers the other side of the island. The water was full of transparent, jelly-like strings of eggs. The aim of the project is to find the correlation between staghounds coral and som basic herbivores (parrot fish, blue tang, and damsel fish). To conduct the study, we set up four different ten-foot plots. Three had high, medium, and low staghorn coral coverage respectively, and one was a control with no coral. While we were tallying the fish, I saw a few interesting creatures, like som christmas tree worms living in some coral, and some strange arthropods latched onto the gills of a few fish. Back on the boat, I learned that the creatures were isopods, and that they fed of the food pits that the fish let drift. After the dive, we went back to Guava Berry for lunch. Once we had eaten and cooled of in the sea, we began some Beach Games. I was in a group with four others from the jasmine cabin, and we were the “Suger Cookies”. The first game was water balloon dodgeball, and we won first place. Next was a game of Pictionary, were each team member had to draw sea-related items in the sand and try to get the rest of the team to guess. Again, we were skilled enough to get first place. Third was a game called “Night Snorkle”, in which we had to guide one member of the team through an obstacle course, that included swimming through the water, while we was wearing goggles that were blacked out. Everything went smoothly (until our racer ran through the finish line and into a pole) and we managed to get second place. The final game was a relay race were we had to slide down a tarp, pick up an item from our snorkeling gear, swim out and around a marker, roll down a hill, sprint down the shoreline and up a hill, and finally tag in our next runner. Against all odds, we managed to get first place again, winning in a landslide victory. Our reward was a hat with “Dive BVI” printed on the front. After a 45 minute brake, we’d rove up to a church with a lovly view of the island. All of us, tired out from the day, nearly fell asleep during the service. After church, we went to an amazing restaurant were I was served a plate of delectable pork chops. After dinner, we saw a dazzling fire dancing show on the deck of the restaurant, then left for Guava Berry. Although the day was long, it was definitely fun and interesting.
