Snorkelers started with coral ID in the morning. We had a quiz in the evening. Kyle and sam had to help me out a little with the names, good thing I decided to take it as a group quiz...While snorkeling, the water started getting choppy as it is quite windy here. The chop tends to bring in stinging pieces of organisms and that is exactly what happened. Each of us was stung at least once today, nothing too bad, but annoying none the less.
It was like swimming through a soup of little clear jellies (those jellies don't stingy). We saw baby jelly polyps which looked just like "Squishy" from Nemo. Today we saw porcupine fish, scorpion fish, lion fish (which are an invasive species and a threat to this ecosystem) an octopus, a lizard fish and a juvenile angel fish!
Tonight we are learning about the different types of fish that we have been seeing and about the role fish play in the reef ecosystem. We are learning the difference between local fishing and commercial fishing and the impact that these activities can have on the reef as a whole.
I have to be honest that it difficult to stay awake through lectures after being in the sun and water all day; today we even had a short hike to our snorkeling site. But the information is so important and relevant to what the group is seeing every day so it is worth staying awake through it. I even heard from Sam that his shoulders were sore this morning from swimming all day yesterday! We should all come home is good shape!
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