Our first day in the British Virgin Islands started off with a great breakfast prepared by our teachers. We got all of the important nutrients we needed before heading off to our first two dives of the trip. After getting all of our gear set up and ready to go, my team and I boarded the Sea Monkey and were on our way to the first dive site. Our first dive was an orientation dive in which we had to perform certain skills in front of our dive leader to ensure that we were prepared to explore the deep. After getting the first dive out of the way, I felt more comfortable with diving in the deep. As we arrived at Great Dog island for our second dive, the dive leaders explained to us why the island was named Great Dog Island. The story is that two rival tribes were fighting for the island and they finally decided to split it into the north and south, one tribe getting the north and one getting the south. As the tribe who now gained the north island went to live on it, they heard a barking noise and they assumed it was dogs. When they assumed it was dogs, they remembered that dogs have rabies, and they did not want to live with dogs with rabies so they left and went to fight the other tribe again. Eventually Christopher Columbus and his explorers found the Island and also heard the barking but they decided to actually check it out. They realized that the barking noise was coming from Caribbean Monk Seals and not dogs. They also found that these monk seals were very great to eat and they let other people on other island know about this great food. Everybody now knew about the monk seals and began to kill and eat them and eventually they became extinct in 1980. After we were given that story of the Great Dog Island, we began our dive plan and eventually got in the water for the second dive. In this final dive of the day we saw many parrot fish, squirrel fish, barracuda, and shrimp. We also saw a spotted moray eel and a jumping crab. We swam through a small sunken plane that was covered in algae with many fish around it. Our first day in the British Virgin Islands was a huge success as I’m sure we all feel more comfortable with the island and diving. I am very excited to get started on my project in the upcoming days.
