Synopsis:The plan for today was that the two groups would be split up by boats. While one group was turtle tagging at sea, the other group was doing hands on learning with invertebrates. Our group, the sea dragon, was assigned to turtle tagging in the morning, and then finding invertebrates in the afternoon. At 8:30 in the morning, we went down to the internet room, where we met the government Representative who would be helping us catch the turtles. She gave us a PowerPoint presentation detailing the history of turtles, turtle tagging, and the history of her organization and how it came to exist. She told us that while some of the sea turtles are endangered in certain areas, in other areas, they are on the least concern list. After her presentation, we walked up to our meeting area where Glen took us to the marina. Our captain Zoltan took us to a site called Little Dicks. There, we partnered up with other people on our boat, and slid into the water. While we saw turtles from the boat, when we got into the water, there were no turtles to be found. We saw a lot of different types of fish including parrotfish and a stingray. We also saw a funky looking sea cucumber. After searching for an hour with no sea turtles, Zoltan called us back to the boat and we looked for a different site. We decided that we too tired to look manually so we did a power tug at Mountain trunk. We attached water skiing ropes to the end of our boat. Next we suited up and jumped in the water. We grabbed hold of the rope, and at a very slow speed, Zoltan pulled us along through the water. Whenever we saw a turtle, we would let go of the rope, and hold up our hand, signaling that we spotted a turtle. We saw three turtles, but the problem was that the turtles were too far below (around 20ft) to effectively get hold of. A few people went down to try and get the turtle but had no luck. After we ran out of time, we went to lunch at a local restaurant. I had fish and chips which tasted good, but it was cold. After we finished, Glen took us to Savanah Bay. Mrs. Beth and Becca gave us an introduction into invertibrates including what they are and which ones to look for on our snorkel. After they finishded talking, we geared up in our mask, fins, and snorkel. After thirty minutes of unfruitful searching around the bay reef, we came across a clam, which, we were unaware of at the time, was dead. Another ten minutes went by and we decided to head around the reef and back to shore. Then out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a lettuce sea slug. It took a little time to catch as it was really jumpy around us. I finally got it into my container and we headed back to shore. On our way back into shore, one of the instructors pointed out a chain moray eel, a rare find in the BVI. We put our findings into a water bucket along with the rest of our groups findings. One by one, we went through each of the findings, including two queen conchs, a large hermit crab, a sea cucumber, multiple sea pearls, another type of sea slug, and two urchins. We were able to touch or hold the organisms that the instructors deemed safe. After we finished learning about the invertebrates, we returned all of the organisms to the reefs. Then we returned to the internet room and worked on our projects.
What I learned:
I learned about the existence of multiple species of animals including the chain moray and the lettuce sea slug. I also learned the history of sea turtles and their migratory patterns. I learned about a very interesting non profit group non as ARK, the Association of Reef Keepers. They are one of the many groups responsible for protecting and cleaning the reefs as well as promoting awareness of harmful actions by poeple.
What I am looking forward to:
I am looking forward to our reck dive tomoroow. We are exploring a ship that was purpesfully sunk by ARK to create a reef and habitat for fish and coral. I think it will be really neat. I also look forward to spending more time on the beach.
