Almost Done

Wow it's already July 4th. Also I haven't had a post in a few days... got some catching up to do. In no particular order, a recap of the week. I hovered less than a foot above a stingray as large as me (probably not the smartest of ideas), one of the SFS interns J.B. left to pursue greater things in the Flordia Keys (days after he left we all still talk about him and miss him), went on several more dives, swam with a reef shark for the first time during a dive, saw lots more Crinoids, Sea Turtles, Barracuda, had schools of Horse-eye Jacks swim right past us, finished Catherine's field research, took the last photo ever of Ben (SFS instructor) with hair, took a picture of Ben with a mohawk, tood a picture of Ben's head totally grazed, and finally went on a night snorkel, saw lots of Spiny Lobsters, saw my first Octopus and Brittle Star in the wild. That's a pretty long sentence. Three days left on the island. Leaving Tuesday morning. And now I have to finish preparing for our final research presentation that starts in ~1 hour.

Friday may have been the most relaxing day by far. It really was like a vacation day. Drove to the northern most tip of South Caicos and relaxed with some friends on the sandy white beach and crystal clear waters. Of course to get there we had to trek through a forest of mangroves and an army of Upside-down Jellyfish. Also found a very nice conch shell that I'll be bringing back. They're fairly cumbersome so I'm probably only going to bring back the one. Saturday was one of the coolest days here. Went diving and swam with a Reef Shark and a Green Sea Turtle. Saw another Crinoid as well. And since it was Saturday, that meant Community Outreach. So Ben, Michaela, and I went down to the southern tip of Long Cay to go Lionfish hunting. They're an invasive here and eat the larvae of all fish. We didn't actually find or capture any but that was okay since I was able to swim directly above an Eagle Ray. This was my first time seeing one and it was beautiful. It was about 10 ft long and had spectacular coloration and markings on it. Got back to the center and went on another dive. Now, one of my first dives in TCI ever, at one of our safety stops I was playing tic-tac-toe with a friend. Inadvertently one of us dropped my pencil and it was to be forever lost in the Caribbean. As we are descending this latest dive I spot something out of place laying in the sediment. IT WAS MY PENCIL. I FOUND MY PENCIL THAT WAS LOST TWO WEEKS+ AGO AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. I was estatic.

Did our first transect yesterday. Right at HDL. One person lays out a transect tape 30 m and takes so basic measurements: depth, temp, etc. One pair of people then swim along transect recording all the fish they see. Next pair records all the Sea Urchins they sea. Last pair has a 1 sq. m quadrat and gives rough estimates of benthos composition every 5, 10, 15, ..., and 30 m. I was with the benthos team. After data was collected and inputed we took an optional snorkel at the south end of Long Cay. Swam with another shark, that was cool. But the highlight may of been seeing a lobster carcass being feasted upon by all the reef fish. That was really cool. Also, the head alone of the lobster was over 12 in. Finally after dinner, the divers went back to The Plane for our Night Dive. This may of been one of the coolest things that I have ever done. Saw two spotted moray eels, lobsters, sleeping parrotfish, shrimps, a Crinoidea, all types of small stuff swimming in my face, and something very interesting. I forget the name but imagine a translucent cylindrical creature with a hole at each end the size of a twinkie. It wasn't a jelly, but you could watch it munch on stuff and see what it had eaten, still alive, in its stomach. We then knelt on the sediment and turned our lights off. At this point we started waving our hands in the water in no particular sequence and the sea started to light up. Little bioluminescent creatures giving off a neon green light in the darkness. And finally, since this was my fifth dive of the advanced course, I'm now Advanced Open Water Certified, yayy!!

Reef Fish ID test on Monday. Much tougher than the Coral Reef ID test. Didn't get as high of a grade as the Coral test but still got an A. (Damn those Parrotfish!!) Rained for the first time on the island today. And it rained hard. Real hard. Today was the "other" Tuesday so our food shipment came and we had to carry it in while be drenched in the rain. We were assigned new groups today for the research project that we'll be doing for the rest of the duration here. Creating transects and seeing if there are differences in numbers of fish species in and out of Marine Protected Areas. Other than that, 14 page paper due tomorrow evening. Pictures will still be continually added to Facebook.

Wreck Dive and Deep Dive completed. We went back to "The Plane" again and drew a map of the area and measured the dimensions of the plane using kick-cycles. Pretty simple dive. We finned around for a bit after that, found some of those shrimp from the tank in Finding Nemo and found a Hornhead Crab (I think is what it's called). In between dives we did the Community Outreach Program again. I signed up for Environmental Education this time. Basically one of the teachers here on the island is trying to write childrens books for mathematics and other TCI-type activities that teachers can use in the classrooms. So we worked on that for a few hours. Then our Deep Dive came. I don't think we actually got to 100 ft, I think my depth gauge said 98 ft, but it was still deep regardless. Once we were at depth, Annie, the divemaster, asked each of us a question to see if we were still coherent and were not suffering from nitrogen narcosis. Some people got math problems, I got "Spell your first and last name backwards." Will, the other instructor had brought down a water bottle with him. When we were at depth, Will filled it in with some air from his tank. By the time we got back to the surface the bottle was about to burst. One more dive left for my Advanced Open Water certification!!
As soon as we got back to the center everyone packed up and we went camping for the night. The best part of the night was playing whiffle-ball... playing whiffle-ball against people from England who aren't even familiar with the game of baseball at all. But when it got too dark we gathered around the campfire, toasted marshmallows, and listened to Will and Michaela play songs on their guitar.

Haven't written anything in a few days. Probably because of a test and paper due next week. But I did get an A on my Coral ID Exam, yayy!! I've started doing my Advanced Open Water course here. On Tuesday I completed Underwater Navigation and Naturalist. This Saturday I should be doing Wreck Dive and Deep Dive. Our fifth and final one will be next Tuesday, I think, and it will be the Night Dive. During the Naturalist dive one of the students turned his tank too tightly and ended up having to use the buddy breathing system. Everyone was fine in the end, but the buddy was more shook up about the event than the guy who needed oxygen. Our Reef Fish ID Sessions are a little bit tougher in the field than our Coral Reef ID Sessions since the fish can swim away. The solution to that is when we bring what looks like car antennas and point from a distance at fish. Occasionally the fish will come closer and try and nibble on it.

Lazy Sunday

All the staff and teachers take a break on Sunday. The students are the ones who are responsible for making brunch/dinner for everyone. No assignments on Sunday, just do what you wish. Coral ID test tomorrow so lots of people were studying. Started off the day with a swim off the dock and snorkeled later. Saw a flounder, spiny lobster, fireworm, and a moral eel. Ended the day with another student and me playing Ultimate Frisbee with over half the staff at the cricket field. Back to work tomorrow.