Like two days ago when we explored the coral graveyard, we noticed how polluted the shores of this island is. We all wanted to leave the island a little better than we found it, so today, we spent the morning cleaning up the beach. We had 7 huge trash bags and we filled them up so quickly. We could have spent days collecting all of that trash, because in just about an hour, we filled up all the trash bags we had. As we picked up trash, we collected data on where the trash tended to be most dense on the island. We found that on different sides of the island, the amount of trash was similar, but the distribution was different. On the edge of the atoll, the collected trash was more concentrated in one area, while on the iside of the atoll, the trash was much more spread out due to thte currents.
Then, in the afternoon, we dissected some lionfish. Lionfish are invasive to this area, and a huge threat to coral reefs, so our professors have been spearing them throughout the week. My llionshidh was very small, so there was nothing in its stomach, and I couldn’t tell the sex. However, it was still interesting to examine the gills and anatomy.
In the evening, we had an optional last snorkel, so obviously, I had to go. Swimming and snorkelling has been my favorite thing to do on the island, and I loved being able to explore the beautiful reefs one last time. I saw so many maze corals, fire corals, and finger corals. I also saw a nurse shark, sting ray, and lion fish.
