Today once again started out with a typical breakfast. After breakfast, we had a presentation from Dr. Gore, a women who is involved in turtle tagging and conservation in the British Virgin Islands. She taught us about the history of turtles, how they evolved, and the history of conservation efforts concerning sea turtles. She also taught us about the current conservation efforts in the BVI, and how turtle tagging contributes to the conservation of turtles. After the turtle lecture we headed down to the beach to begin our day at sea. Today we did not participate in any scuba dives, however, we went to two different snorkeling sites where we attempted to catch turtles and learn about invertebrates. The first dive site I went to was Little Dix Bay, where we went to try and catch turtles. One thing that I did not know about turtles is how fast they are when they see you, and how elusive they can be. Because of those two qualities, my boat and I caught 0 turtles even though we saw 5-6 of them. After failing to catch turtles, we had lunch and then headed out to the second snorkel site. The second snorkel site was on a beach, and our task was to catch as many invertebrates as we could. My partner Will and I caught a couple jellyfish and 2 small hermit crabs. After the short snorkel we went to the beach where we identified and learned about all different types of invertebrates that were living in the sea. My favorite invertebrate was an octopus who was living inside of a huge shell. Then we had dinner and watched a documentary about the decreasing amount of coral in the oceans, which led us to have a discussion about how we could stop this harmful trend. Tomorrow I am looking froward to the wreck dive at the Kodak Queen, one of the few remaining ships from the Pearl Harbor attack. Overall, it was a very tiring but productive day.
