Discovery SCUBA!

Starting out the day bright and early, we headed over to the Bahama sand bars to snorkel around and check out the special sand called ooids. Even though we were all super cold we learned a lot and had an awesome time. While we were there we found sand dollars, sea biscuits, and live queen conch. After heading back on the boat we were disappointed when we thought we saw some dolphins, but the morning was spectacular enough. 

Once we were back at the school we had breakfast and then looked over our data from the conch surveys. We found that in most areas there was much less conch then the previous year. The class discussed various ways of protecting the conch including MPA’s (marine protected areas) and educating the fisherman about sustainable fishing. After this we headed over to the boathouse where we learned the basics of scuba diving before we headed out to the beach. We talked about important hand signals, do’s and don’ts, and skills. Once we understood the basics we were fitted with our gear and then packed up everything and headed over to the saddle at sunset beach.

Once we were there we broke up into groups with a certified dive instructor and began practicing safety techniques in shallow water. After we mastered this, we headed out to a small drop off of thirty feet. Here we dove around the area and saw things like squirrel fish, Nassau groupers, sting rays, spiny urchins and one group even saw a reef shark! This was one of the coolest things we have ever done and it is a memory we will never forget.

Everyone got out of the water, extremely excited about our first scuba dive. We all talked about it the entire bike ride home. Once we were there we all helped putting away the scuba gear and settled down for some much needed relaxation time. After dinner we walked over to the presentation room where we learned about Nocturnal Adaptations of Marine Organisms (aka Finding N.A.M.O). These are the various ways marine organisms change to fit their environment to protect themselves from predators and help them hunt. The reason we learned this was to prepare us for our night wade tomorrow. So with that in our minds we headed to bed excited for our next adventure waiting for us!

Olivia & Abel