Starting off the day with breakfast at the Alamanda cabin, we got our food and headed back to our cabins to start off the day. We got in our taxi and started off to the boats where we loaded our tanks and got our gear ready to dive. Our first site was back at the Chimney, except this time we stayed by the bigger corals instead of exploring through the chimney. Once again we set up our 10×10 ft area and started recording our video looking for some more parrotfish, damselfish, and wrasse. On the first site we saw a lot of parrotfish, and damselfish, but not a lot of wrasse. In terms of algae I’d say it was roughly 30% coverage of algae and in turn our observations today support our hypothesis. After the dive we headed out to Bronco Billy where we had our last project dive, the last chance to collect data. At this site we saw less parrotfish and damselfish but a ton of wrasse which tended be grouped together, in schools. After finishing the dive we wrapped up and headed into shore where we ate some lunch together and headed over to the beach. We took place in the Battle of the Beach and had a battle between the cabins. From relay races to sand pictionary we spent hours on the beach playing games against the cabins, and then we relaxed and played some frisbee in the ocean. Later into the night we grilled out and had some burgers and sausage together on the beach as the sun set. To end the night we grabbed our gear and headed out into the pitch black on our night snorkel, where we saw multiple different animals. We were able to see a plethora of squids, an octopus, needlefish, and a porcupine pufferfish. Although I got kicked and finned in the head, the views of the fish were most definently worth it. Getting ready to hit the hay all I see in my future is a big green turtle in my arms breaching the water in a dramatic scene.
Captions: Finishing beach games; School is always in session
