Today, similar to the day before, began before 7 with very little alertness and excitement. After breakfast was hosted by our chaperones at Hibiscus cabin, a lovely meal of yogurt, pastries, and eggs, we meandered to the conference room for a presentation by Dr. Gore on the migration and conservation of sea turtles. The group then split up between the boats of Sea Monkey and Sea Dragon to examine separate areas. With the Sea Dragon group, I traveled to a private beach to collect invertebrates in an effort to create a touch pool in a small bucket. Following thirty minutes of snorkeling on individual reefs, we collected a giant hermit crab, several sea urchins, lettuce slugs, sea pearls, and snails. A short information session was given by Casey, the owner of the dive shop, to inform us on the markings and characteristics of the individual species we collected. Later, our group reunited with the Sea Monkey crew at the harbor to eat lunch and switch activities. After eating, Zoltan took us out on the Sea Dragon to the bay adjacent to our touch pool activity. Our goal was to catch a turtle to either tag or record its information if it was previously tagged. While snorkeling with my partners Matt and Anthony, we saw several green turtles that quickly fled our vicinity. Giving up on chasing sea dwelling equivalent to an eagle, our trio encountered several rays that were accompanied by individual fish, as well as a single hiding octopus, and several barracuda. The Sea Dragon team triumphed as the only group to capture a turtle. Tagging and flipping our specimen over were ordeals to say the least as the turtle struggled and flapped often. I also learned in this entertaining event that it is nearly impossible to determine the sex of sea turtles by visual reference until they reach reproductive age. Approaching its release, we named the turtle Dawson, after its captor. Post-return, we competed in games on the beach, in which Mango cabin took home 3rd place out of four teams. On the beach after the activities I sadly suffered an elbow injury of unknown extent that will most likely sideline me for tomorrow’s dives.
