Hi everyone!

Much like other days today was great! Early in the morning we got to go to the fore reef which was a little intimidating at first but also super cool! There we got to see a green turtle at the bottom and many, many sea walnuts (which were beyond adorable.) I am so glad we visited although we were only able to stay for a short while due to the weather conditions of the atoll at this time of the year. Even though I loved the experience I will say one thing: I am so grateful I decided to take Dramamine during breakfast. I think I would have felt seasick if I had decided to tough it out!

After we got back to Glover’s we all did a group clean-up of the beach. Together we picked up around 65kg of trash; I’m pretty proud of us! In the process, we also collected data on how much of the trash could be disposed of here at Glover’s and how much would have to be shipped to the mainland to be disposed of. Yet, perhaps the coolest part of our findings is that different areas of the island allow for different efficiency in collecting said trash, therefore if there is limited man power, we found that there are certain areas were effort should be a priority! While cleaning the coast, one member of our team found something that kind of shocked us all:

We are still unsure of how this level of preservation happened but it is so pristine that we were able to identify it as a type of box fish. During this trip I had heard about box fish, yet I didn’t know too much about them as they are omnivores and therefore not part of my taxa, piscivorous fish. Yet, seeing this little guy prompted me to learn a lot more about these fish, and honestly they are really cool!

Making today even better, before dinner we saw a hermit crab switch shells; I thought I would never get to see this, but this trip truly is full of surprises at every turn!