This morning we started with a quick breakfast at 7:30 in one of our casas before reporting at the main road to take Glen’s taxi. His taxi is an old f350 flatbed with several benches and a roof fitted to it. As we drive from the resort to the harbor, we count the number of cars he honks hello to. After a 30 minute boat trip to Cooper island, we were briefed on the two wrecks we would be seeing. They were both sunk to create artificial reefs. One was a tugboat and the other was a roll on/of cargo ship. The cargo ship was inverted and resting on the superstructure so we were able to swim underneath it and observe the fish that were hiding there. The wrecks were at a depth of about 60 feet so we used our air quickly and got back to the boat to go to the next dive site. The next site was only a few minutes away so we were back in the water in no time. We had discussed our final project in the boat so we set to work executing the project. Our experiment is to observe the number of species and amount of fish in three specific species in a given area. We are measuring to compare the marine life of a complex coral area and a simple coral area. After placing two twenty foot measuring lines at each site, we gave the fish five minutes to get acclimated. Then two teams swam along the line and tallied the fish in the area. I recorded the experiment from above with my GoPro so that we could review it later. The experiment went well and we got the results we were expecting. We recorded the numbers of Stoplight parrotfish, blue tang, and fairy basletts. After exploring some more and getting some great video we resurfaced and boarded the boat. When we got back to the bay, glen took us to the beach near our resort for lunch. We had sandwiches and chips and then played ultimate on the beach. The next activity was a series of team challenges which were pictionary, a relay race, a night snorkel and a game of water balloon dodgeball. After getting properly sunburned, my team, the squid squad, took third place. Afterwards, we showered and then went to church for mass. After that we went to dinner at a restaurant at the top of the baths and watched a performance by fire dancers after nightfall.
