Today I awoke excitedly awoke knowing a day of studying invertebrates and turtle tagging awaited me. Contrary to other days, today Marine 1 students would be split from Marine 2 students. Us Marine 1 students got in the taxi and drove to the beautiful, Savanna bay. There Casey, Beth, and Andrea were waiting for us under a tent. We then got into the water and explored the coral in search of invertebrates to collect such as Sea Slugs, Crabs, Urchins, Shrimp, and we were even able to capture a Fire Worm. We then put them in clear buckets to observe under the tent. Casey led a lesson about each of the invertebrates we were able to catch. I was most interested in the Fire Worm for it’s defensive skills. When it senses a threat, it will boast the small white needles all over it’s body that are soon ejected into the surrounding water. As soon as the needles make contact with something it will inject a fluid that has the same impact as fire coral, lots of pain and a really bad rash. We ate a lunch that consisted of a PB and J sandwich on the beach. After that we headed back to the Dive BVI shop to learn about the different types of turtles as preparation for turtle tagging. Once on the boat, we worked in teams of spotters and swimmers. The swimmers were towed by the boat trying to spot turtles. Unfortunately, we did not see any turtles while using this strategy. Therefore, we stopped in a bay and began to snorkel around and actually saw a sea turtle! At dinner we enjoyed burgers that were cooked on the beach. Not catching a turtle was disappointing but all in all it was a great day.
