Caribbean Adventures: "Everythings groovy mon"

Just realized I haven't posted anything in a week. Well, let me hit up some highlights of this last week and throw up some pictures. So midterms were last friday, saturday, and monday. After that was finished, we moved on to the data analysis phase of our conch assessment project for Marine Ecology. In groups, we have to prepare a paper on our results, referencing a host of other scientific papers. I just finished my share of the literature summaries to pass around to the group. We are also starting a tourism assessment project for Environmental Policy that begins today, and we have a research proposal project and a lobster management proposal to do after we come back from break.

Sunday me and a couple friends swam out off one of the beaches to HDL and Dove Cay, where we explored the reef and the island on our own. It was a great time, its nice to not be rushed at a reef and be able to take all the time you want. There are a lot of interesting things that you can miss in a casual swim by. You could miss groups of freshly post-larval fish looking to settle on a patch of reef that are super small and transparent. You could miss a cleaning station, where all sorts of large fish like nassau groupers come and open their mouths and gills for little wrasses to come and eat little parasites and detritus off of them. All sorts of cool things hide under ledges and inside crevasses in the rocks. And then there are the big things. Like when five spotted eagle rays cruised by us, looking majestic as they glided through the water. The views above the water from the top of dove cay were great. It was cool to be able to look out at the surrounding coastlines and know what I would find under the water in spots all over.

We went hunting for lionfish on monday. A lionfish hunt involves scouring a reef for them and netting them and bringing them back for dissection. Lionfish are an invasive species here, originally from the indopacific, with no natural predators, an array of spines that deliver venomous sting, a wide range, and a large appetite. The more that are killed the better. We caught a lot and no one got stung. Not every day you get to go hunt venomous fish for class.

My pressure gauge broke on wednesday so I had to miss a dive, it was pretty unfortunate but I'll be able to get a replacement next week, since I'll be on the main island. Its pretty hard to be upset about things when you can go work out with a great ocean view, and then go jump in the ocean to wash off. Last night, I had a stingray wider than a bathtub swim right next to me when I was taking a sea bath.

Today we are visiting the only functional hotel and the two in development as part of our tourism assessment. Tonight we are going camping on long beach, I'm really looking forward to that. Then on tuesday we leave for Provo. We are going to some other bigger islands on a field trip for a couple days and ending up on Provo for our break to start. It actually made the most financial sense for me and a group of friends to stay friends to book a 5-star all inclusive resort for the rest of our break. Seriously. Its off season here so we got a great rate. Looking forward to that, using a real shower for the first time since leaving California will be awesome. Anyways here are some recent pictures of underwater fun we've been having here.