Those Crazy Corals

Today was coral day! It was absolutely beautiful this morning. The water was absolutely glassy.

We left extra early to take a boat out to the coral reefs.

We passed all sorts of interesting homes on the way out. We got a great look at BIOS and their research vessel that came in yesterday. We're supposed to get a tour of it tomorrow.

On our way out we got instructions on how to sample corals. We were using our transects again and diving down to see what was there every half meter.

There were some interesting sites on the way out.

The old railroad bridge. And sea turtle crossing

We saw some people climbing cliffs to go fishing. Look really carefully, you can see them.

My roommate's been waiting all week to see the Bermuda longtailed bird and we finally found them today. They were off shore from where we snorkeled two days ago.

When we pulled up to the first site, our guide found a sea horse on the mooring line.

We got in and the bottom was covered with coral. I've never seen so much coral in one place. They were beautiful. These were boiler reefs.

Sadly, my camera flooded right after I took this picture so I missed the orange stage white spotted file fish that swam by. We took our data and snorkeled around a little. There were so many sargent majors and parrotfish. I also saw some really cool ctenophores (think jellies but flat). They were changing colors and flickering. I was really disappointed I didn't have my camera. When we finished here we drove back to the rock I took many pictures while we were at Well Bay on Weds. I did manage to get a shot of it on our way out to the first reef. This was a patch reef.

This reef was very different. It was mostly soft corals like sea fans and sea plumes. I saw some parrotfish but my roommate saw a trumpetfish. Our professor told us the other day that they should be called stealth bomber fish because their jaw is designed so that as they swim they don't create any pressure in front of them so their prey doesn't know they're coming. Pretty neat. The water was really cold so we got out after our transect and headed back to base. We've spent all afternoon looking at data and putting together our presentations for Saturday. We have all day tomorrow to work on them but I think everyone will get finished tonight. My plan is to go to the aquarium and visit Hamilton. I'm very excited. Hopefully the weather will be very nice. And don't worry, I brought two cameras on this trip so there will be plenty of pictures. There's supposed to be spotted eaglerays that hang out by the aquarium. Some of the other students want to rent mopeds but I told them I'm not allowed.... our family doesn't do well with them, besides, the way people drive here, I'd rather take the bus.