Cristobal de Oyarzabal '19

In the morning we went to a beach to clean up marine debris. We each took a bag or bucket and walked around the beach collecting trash on the beach. While I was looking for trash I saw a sea turtle resting on the beach in a crevasse in the lava rock. At the same beach, after cleaning up...

We started off today by going back to NELHA to tour a couple of aquacultures. First we went to a kampachi farm and then an abalone farm. After NELHA the black water divers went back to the Homes Over Kona to eat and rest until it was time for the dive. At nightfall we took a boat out to...

On the Captain Zodiac trip we saw several cetaceans, pilot whales and Hawaiian spinner dolphins. The group of pilot whales included a couple bull whales and four calfs. We saw them in the Pelagic zone because they are deep sea creatures. The spinner dolphins we saw in shallower water because they were in a resting period, waiting for nightfall...

We started off today with a two tank dive. I saw many of the reef fish we talked about in class: raccoon fish, saddle wrasse, moorish idols, and parrot fish. I also saw three octopi and a green sea turtle. I identified the green turtle from the shell. We also a saw a frog fish on a rock and...

Today we started off the day by going to NELHA and learning about conservation and research efforts unique to Kona. One such example was the OTEC, use of cold deep water and surface water from the pelagic zone close to Kona's shore to create energy using the re-boiling of ammonia through a closed system. By boiling the ammonia using...

Arriving at Kona we were greeted with a warm welcome and beautiful sites. My favorite part of today was finding a lychee tree and going on a small adventure to get the fruit. We went to find a large stick with which we knocked down some fruit and ate it. This reminded me of my grandma who has a...

I am most excited about seeing sea turtles in the wild and seeing cetaceans, if possible. I am also excited to get some diving experience.