Today we finally got to go snorkeling in part of the atoll that we had heard so many good things about since we’ve stayed here. Until now we had mostly been visiting the patch reefs within the lagoon, but on the oval edge of the atoll there is a huge reef called the forereef that has a huge areas of large reef interspersed between deep grooves that break the intense wave energy. The wind had actually been too strong these last few days to safely attempt seeing it, but this morning we had a rare window of opportunity, and seized it!

This area was much much deeper than anywhere we have snorkeled so far, and it was so deep that it was difficult taking any high resolution pictures of the huge corals below. But most excitingly, I was actually able to spot some little ctenophores (comb jellies) close to us! Comb jellies look like translucent jelly-like forms that don’t sting like jellyfish do, so even though we were right in the middle of a mass of them, we were just fine! It was hard to get any clear view on them because of how translucent they are, but based on what I saw, they look like the sea walnut comb jelly.

We unfortunately couldn’t stay out there for longer than about 20 minutes because then the waves picked up, and a lot of us got seasick again :(. After recovering, we heard a lecture on the effects of pollution in the ocean from marine debris such as plastics, and designed a dual research project and beach cleanup activity! We recorded the types and amount of debris we were able to collect on the shores around our island. We were able to calculate which areas of the island would be most effective to focus on for future cleanup efforts, and collect over 60 kg of trash! Here is an insanely cool photo of some very well preserved fish remains someone found during the cleanup!