5.21.2017

I woke up today at 5:30 for the second day in a row. Although the sunrise this morning wasn’t as great as yesterday, it was still worth forgoing a bit of sleep. After standing at the top of the observation deck for about half an hour, I took the best nap on the hammock before breakfast.

For today’s diversity activity, we headed out to the back reef to collect samples of our taxonomic groups. While I couldn’t bring back any coral, I was still able to participate in the fun. I caught a Coco damsel fish in a conch shell and brought back a purple-tipped Caribbean giant anemone. I also dug up a piece of turtle grass (T. testudinum) and some black mangrove (A. germinans) roots to demonstrate to the class, which is a good introduction for my topic lecture tomorrow.

The absolute best find, however, was a baby Caribbean reef octopus that I lovingly named Squishy. It was so cool to watch Squishy swim through the bin changing color; it was also funny seeing him ink.

The day ended with a poster presentation of the marine debris activity from yesterday and a short snorkel before dinner. The current was ripping, but we were able to bring back four more lionfish. Yay for conservation and ceviche!