Today was the first time we went on our project dive. We went on two dives this morning to collect data for our presentation, which we have to present on Saturday. Basically, we dove down to record data off squirrel fish from low coral coverage and high coral coverage. I enjoyed the dive and I had fun swimming around and observing all of the cool coral reefs and fish, specifically the squirrel fish. I learned today where to locate the squirrel fish; they are located under coral reefs and rocks at the bottom of the ocean. I don’t really know why they do this, but I assume it’s to hide from predators and to stay away from them. Also I learned that squirrel fish like to live and be around live and high coral coverages, and very few are around low coral coverages. On our way back to the boat from our data dives, I saw a octopus roaming under neath us. I thought it was pretty cool since I have never seen one before and it was pretty interesting seeing it swim under water.
After the 2 dives, we went to go snorkel down by the yacht club and on the other side of Virgin Gorda to look at the roots of the mangrove tree that went into the water. During the snorkel, I didn’t see a lot of interesting things because it was kind of hard to see, although I saw a couple of big barracudas swimming around and it was amusing to watch. Overall, today’s was a very short day of activities, so there was not a lot to talk about. Even though it was short, I still had fun and got a lot of interesting things out of it.
