Location: Great Harbor, Peter Island
We ended the night yesterday with an amazing night dive. As soon as we hopped in the water, we spotted a reef shark swimming right below us! Everyone was so excited we were practically screaming into our regulators. Once we got down to the bottom, it was extremely dark. The Tarpon swimming around us had no fear. They would get super close to our group while feeding on the tiny fish that were everywhere. Everyone survived our second-night dive and came up with a smile on their face!
This morning we woke up right around 7, got all of our smelly laundry together to be picked up, and got ready for the day. Marin cooked us the breakfast of champions, breakfast burritos! The eggs were cooked perfectly, and everything tasted so good. As we were cleaning up from breakfast, the reef shark from last night made another appearance, this time super close to the boat! Ethan, Alana, and I quickly grabbed our snorkel gear and hopped in, hoping to get another close glimpse of the shark in daylight. A few minutes later, the reef shark reappeared, and we got a first-row seat as it swam right by us, completely unbothered. We estimated that it was about 8 feet long! Unfortunately, this encounter led our boat into a conversation about human impacts on marine life because the shark had a hook and line stuck in its gills. After our morning excitement was over, we started practicing for our research dives. First, we took a snorkel trip around GHP and recorded how many wormholes were filled by blennies by using quadrats and transects. Next, we did the same thing while diving. Tonight, we are all going to discuss our results to determine if wormholes serve as an adequate home for the blennies.
Our second dive of the day was a fun dive. We sailed over to the reef wall on the other side of GHP, got our gear together, and then it was time to go. We were in charge of this dive. There would be no instruction by the staff! It was up to us to determine our direction, depth, and safety! Gabby and I led the dive on the way out, and then we switched our leadership halfway to Eve and Alana. It was so cool to see all of the different marine life that live on the reef wall. We all got back to the boat safe and sound, feeling extremely proud that we didn’t get lost.
After our second dive of the day, Alana did an amazing job of steering us back to the other side of GHP, where we were anchoring for the night. We all took saltwater showers, laughing about looking like George Washington and enjoying the view of a rainbow. Now, as I write the blog with the help of Leela (to her parents: Hi!), we are waiting for our delicious thanksgiving meal- with chicken. Shouldn’t Thanksgiving dinner be with turkey?