After a quick breakfast at the plum tree house, and a discussion with my research team, I was ready to head out to explore the BVI and develop relationships with my Jesuit brothers. The lead up to the dive site was just like yesterday except for our new equipment. Zoltan gave us lines that we marked off at 10ft to measure our 10×10 research area. We also got markers to mark the corners of our research area. The goal of our two research dives was to find areas of coral with different algae levels and observe and record the levels of different types of coral diseases such as black band, white band and coral bleaching. After a quick gameplan meeting we were ready to go.
On the way to our first dive site off the coast of Ginger’s Island called Ginger’s hole we ran across a pod of dolphins. After that exciting encounter we descended and Matt and I paired up with each other and so did Nick and Tyler. Each pair setup an area that fit our experiment parameters using our new equipment. Our last piece of new equipment was underwriting dive slates to communicate and record data. Our sites were within and on the outskirts of a staghorn coral “forest”. While setting up our area, Matt was stung by fire coral but he was alright after a relatively short amount of pain. After recording our data and observations on both sites we started to head back to the boat when suddenly a curious 4ft Caribbean Reef Shark circled around us and got fairly close. After surfacing we realized Matt had lot his slate and luckily Zoltan could see it floating so Matt jumped in with nothing but his mask and fins and swam over 100 yards to retrieve it. Luckily he made it back in one piece with the dive slate but he was very tired!
Our second dive was also off the coast of Ginger’s island but this site was called Ginger’s backside. We had the same goal as the first dive but we were in much shallower water. We repeated the experiment process so I’ll spare you the details but some interesting things were seen. We saw a coral head that had an anchor loop in that had been dragged 20ft by a boat that was too large for the anchor. We also saw the largest spiny lobster I had ever seen. This thing had a head larger than a softball and antennae over a foot long! Tyler also saw two squids. We then did a safety stop and went on the boat. Once in harbor, we ate at a restaurant. I had a cheeseburger with fries.
After an hour of dive time we went on a tour of The Baths which got its name due to it being the location where slaves were washed before being sold. After treacherous climbing of slippery rocks I snorkeled home with the group. I saw a puffer fish, several squid, several snapper and rally cool coral formations.
Looking forward I am excited to continue my research and continuing to build bonds with my Jesuit brothers. Mr. Marr also said there was a surprise tomorrow so I’m looking forward to that as well!
