Day Two: May 10, 2017
Date: May 10, 2017
Time: 8:00am-3:30pm
Location: Coral Gardens
Sites: Coral Garden Reefs/Confined Water Dive
Depths: 20 ft. + 6 ft.
The first part of the day started after breakfast at 7:30am, and then we began our scuba diving class at 8:00am. We learned first how to assemble the scuba kit, which included the oxygen tank, the BCD, low pressure hose, primary and secondary regulators, pressure gauge, mask, snorkel, fins, and the wetsuit, and practiced the assembly one or twice.
After doing so, we jumped in our wetsuits and got into the pool. In the pool we completed confined water dives 1-4. This included some skills such as equalizing your ears, using your secondary regulator with your buddy, clearing your mask, controlling our buoyancy, were among just a few. I think the hardest skill I had trouble with was clearing your mask, it makes me nervous and anxious, I think I am just afraid of breathing in so much water. However, after some much needed practice, I think I am finally starting to get it down, but the real test will be tomorrow! Being in the pool learning all those skills for almost 7 hours was exhausting, and I was battling a migraine, but I am so happy I pushed through, took a nap and some ibuprofen at lunch, and I was feeling a little better, thankfully!
We changed things up a bit for confined water dive 5, and went into the ocean, and this was when the real fun started to happen. We dove for approximately 20 minutes at a depth of about 20 feet. I can honestly say I have never been so utterly amazed and mesmerized by my surroundings. It was gorgeous around the coral reef. We saw a huge array of species that ranged from parrotfish, both stoplight and queen parrotfish, tons of yellowtail snapper, a porcupine fish, bigeye and mahogany snapper, four-eyed butterfly fish, blue striped grunt, and even a sea turtle! While it was a simpler dive, not at such large depths, I was happy were able to test the waters out in the ocean, so we knew what to expect tomorrow. I noticed that at first it was hard to stay down towards the bottom, I kept floating up initially, but once I stayed down there it was much easier to maneuver. Overall, I am super excited about tomorrow, so stay tuned!
From yours truly,
Tropical Marine BIO crew
Day Three: May 11, 2017
Date: May 11, 2017
Time: 9:00am-2:00pm
Location: Coral Gardens
Sites: Northwest Point/Eel Garden
Depths: 40 ft.
After a 45 minute boat ride to Northwest Point, we geared up and jumped in the ocean, where we started in on our skills! Some of the skills we initially covered at the surface before starting our first descent were towing a “tired” scuba diver to the front of the boat and weight checks to see if we were diving with the appropriate amount of weight in our BCDs. Next we started our five-point descent to the bottom. I had a really hard time equalizing my right ear for some reason, my left ear equalized perfectly fine. Because I struggled with my right ear, it took me a long time to descend because I had to keep moving back up the line if I was having a hard time equalizing, and then moving back down when I finally equalized I could then inch forward; it was almost like one step forward and two steps back.
Once I finally reached the bottom and knelt down in a semi circle with everyone, I looked around, and I could see what felt for miles (but it was only 60 ft.). I saw mostly yellowtail snappers initially, and a few blue tangs. After finishing the first skill at the bottom, regulator recovery, we swam around for a while. We saw tons of stoplight, queen, and princess parrotfish, blue tangs, four-eyed butterflies, bluehead (terminal phase), queen triggerfish, and black durgons. We swam over to the wall of the coral fish where it drops off over 2,000 ft., and it was absolutely gorgeous. I got that feeling when you are standing on a large cliff or side of a mountain, and you look over, and you don’t want to move any closer to the edge because you feel like you are going to fall off, and while it was completely irrational, I couldn’t help but inch towards the side of the wall. After continuing to dive around for a while, we made a pit stop where we completed our partial flooding of the mask. I will say that this is my weakest point in scuba diving, I hate flooding my mask, and I struggled with it at first, but I completed it, thankfully, at my second chance. We then started our ascent to the top, with a five minute safety stop. We had some much needed snacks and water, and then started our next session.
Our second dive of the day, I thought, went much better (at least for me). We started off with a swim test, in which we did three laps around the boat and treading water for ten minutes. This was when I really thanked my parents for putting me in private swimming lessons when I was so young! Afterwards, we put on our scuba gear and jumped right in again. We did another weight check, this time on our own, and then some of us, including me completed their CESA, Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent. I mixed up my hands, but other than that it went swimmingly (haha, get it?). I then became the towee, and my buddy towed me to the front of the boat. Then for the second time that day we began our five-point descent. This time was much easier, though I did have some troubles with my right ear, it straightened out much quicker, and made for a quicker descent to the bottom. However, this descent was also more exciting because we saw a stingray swimming across the ocean floor with a couple fish swimming on it’s back. The stingray was beautiful, just elegantly, and gracefully moving it’s wings to glide across the floor. We then started with our first skill, the fin pivot, and then once we completed that, we moved to practicing using our buddy’s alternate air source when we were low on air. We made sure to switch up roles, so we both got the experience. We practiced this skill several times because it was important that we got this one down packed. Afterwards we went on an excursion, and swam around for a while. This is when we saw the moray eel and the nurse shark hiding underneath coral. We also saw a flamingo tongue attached to the coral, it was so cool seeing it in person, it is so tiny, compared to what I saw in pictures. We then did another pit stop and completed a full flood mask, and again I struggled with this skill, but I completed it with some help! Afterwards we did a controlled alternative air ascent with a buddy (my partner was Will). When we reached the surface we practiced a couple more surface skills, including a snorkel/regulator exchange, inflating a signaling device, and BCD removal.
While it was an extremely long and exhausting day, we all mustarded up the energy to go to the Thursday Fish Fry. We had so much fun, honestly, some of the most fun I have had in a very long time. We danced so much, that by the time we were walking back, I was limping because I had danced so much! The food was delicious, I had jerk chicken and a side of mac and cheese, along with a refreshing coconut drink to top it off. Haley and I found a soap vender who made homemade soap, bath bombs, and pumice stones. We talked to her for a while, and found that she is a 24-year old, breaking out of the business, she just bought a brand new store front to sell her soaps! She talked about how disappointed her parents were that she didn’t go the traditional route, hospitality. Made me really grateful that my parents did not once have expectations, and did nothing but support me and my career and educational dreams and ambitions. She also mentioned that her boyfriend was a 5th year medical student, which was really awesome to hear. Anyways, it was a really awesome and educational day, I went to bed without even updating my field observation log because I was sooo incredibly tired.
Day Four: May 12, 2017
Date: May 12, 2017
Time: 11:30am-4:00pm
Location: Coral Gardens and Smith’s Reef
Sites: Coral Gardens and Smith’s Reef
Depths: Snorkeling
Today we had a more laid back day, not starting until 9:00am (which means we got to sleep in-yay!) At 11:00am we meet up inside our hotel and picked out our snorkeling gear (fins, masks, and snorkels). We headed right out and jumped right into the ocean and got to it. For about an hour and a half we snorkeled around the reef outside coral gardens. Right off the bat we saw a Hawksbill Turtle swimming around in the turtle grass, just minding it’s own business nibbling on grass. We saw so many different species, including tons of parrotfish, and a large trumpetfish. We also saw a beautiful, large spotted eagle ray, it was absolutely gorgeous just gliding through the water! It had several fish just sitting on the back of the eagle ray, going along with the the eagle ray as it glided. The sheer amount of different species and coral was amazing. Towards the end of our first session of snorkeling, on our way back to the shore we saw a scrawled filefish and a honeycomb cowfish too! I have never seen anything so beautiful, amazing, and intricate, I am still in shock!
After a long lunch we all hoped in the car and drove down a little ways to Smith’s Reef, and if you thought coral garden’s water was beautiful, Smith’s Reef’s water was blue as can be, and stunning!
Here we started off by snorkeling our way to the coral reef, we were told to “go find it,” and we did! We explored around the reef for about a half an hour on our own. We saw a long-spinned sea urchin, which was a new one! We also saw two trumpetfish, several cleaning stations with parrotfish and cleaning gobies! After we explored, we headed to shore, and met with our Dr. Cangialosi and Dr. Strong, where they taught us about their research they do on reef monitoring! They set up a transect tape on the shore of the beach, approximately 20.0 meters, and showed us how they measure fish, vertebrates, and the substrate. After discussing methods and details we snorkeled out to an area with Dr. Cangialosi and Dr. Strong, where they set up a 10.0 meter transect tape on a part of the coral reef. Will and I were partners, and we measured the number of invertebrates within the 10.0 meter length X 2.50 meters on either side of the tape. While Will and I mostly saw gordonians, I saw one shrimp, and while I couldn’t count it, I saw a large spotted moray eel! On Will and I’s way back to the shore, we looked to our left and saw a smaller Southern Stingray with a smaller fish swimming on it’s back. It was so close to the shore and us, we couldn’t believe it! It was, yet again, another awesome day. Can’t wait for tomorrow, more diving-yay!
Day Five: May 13, 2017
Date: May 13, 2017
Time: 9:00am-12:45pm
Location: West Caicos
Sites: Tons of Sponge and Sand Chute
Depths: 60 ft. and 40 ft.
Today we officially completed our scuba certification. We started off the day by waking up and meeting at the dock around 8:00 am, where we put together our dive kit yet again, including our oxygen tank, BCD, masks, snorkels, fins, etc. This time it was approximately a 45 minute boat ride to our first dive site: Tons of Sponge. We put on all of our gear and ventured out. While some individuals were completing their CESA (that I had completed during our last dive trip), I completed the surface compass skill. While waiting around for everyone to complete their skills we looked down and saw two reef sharks, they intimidating but beautiful. After everyone had completed their CESA and surface compass skill, we made our descent in groups of three. I grouped up with Haley Fantasia (Hay Hay) and Audrey because we were both experiencing similar ear problems, and we knew that it was going to take a while to make it to the bottom. While Haley didn’t seem to have many problems, Audrey and I struggled for a while. At one point I was in so much pain, I had actually yelled into my regulator because both of my ears hurt so bad, and I was only at 10 ft.
Finally though, after a long descent, we made it to the bottom, where we then completed another skill: hovering from orally inflating our BCD. We then swam around for about a half an hour, and saw similar species that we had already seen in previous dives, but at the same time it was so different, yet just as brilliant. We then moved onto our last mask skill (yay! thank God!), and I was so nervous. Thus far, I struggled most with the mask skills; I freak myself out, and as a natural instinct I breathe in through my nose, taking in water, and then I continue to freak out until my mask is finally cleared. However, this last mask skill was supposed to be the hardest; you had to completely take off the face mask, hold it out, and then blindly put it back on, and clear it. Obviously being nervous from breathing in so much water from my last two mask skills, I tried plugging my nose at first while I took the mask off. However, the strap got caught, and I couldn’t blindly figure out how to get the strap in the right position for me to put it back on my head. Growing nervous and anxious, I kind of said ‘screw it’ and unplugged my nose, quickly put the mask back on, cleared it, and then celebrated because I had finally done it! Finally, as a group we ascended and got back on the boat for some much needed water and snacks while we prepared for our next dive!
After about a 15 minute boat ride from our previous location to Sand Chute, the final open water dive session was planned and completed. This dive site only reached a depth of about 40 ft. This session was all about planning and executing a dive essentially by ourselves, however, if we ever needed help they were there to step in. As a group we made a plan, and decided it was time to gear up and jump in. We swam along a wall that dropped approximately 4,000 ft. From the edge we could look over and see for 70+ft. The water so was clear and bright blue you could almost see everything. When you looked out you could see a swirling, almost tornado-like mass of fish of all sorts of species spinning around. And suddenly to the bottom left of the swirling mass there was a large reef shark swimming towards us, and as it was nearing us, off into the distance you could see another one coming our way. We all just sat there and watched as the minded their own business. While one reef shark stayed farther away from us, the first one came within inches of Audrey and I. At first I was scared, all these thoughts running through my mind, should I run/swim to the top, or should I stay still and not move, and the irrational fear of ‘this shark is gonna eat me’ runs through your head, but I learned that you should simply mind your own business and their mind their own business. Audrey and I then stayed closer to the back of the pack where we saw a porcupine fish and great barracuda. We were then rushed to the top because a couple of us were nearly out of air (us newbies, what can I tell ya), and we made our way back to the boat, and eventually shore.
We spent the afternoon swimming, laying by the beach, reading, blogging, and having some down time. Later in the evening we went over to Dr. Cangialosi and Dr. Strong’s friend’s house, and had pizza and conch fritters together, while playing with their two dogs, Coop and Little Dog, and their cat, Lola. Once it got dark enough out we made our way over to a canal so we could see the glow worms, since it was 3 days past the full moon. We literally waited by the river for maybe two minutes before some initial flickers in the water started occurring, and before you knew it you could look further down the canal and see bright green/yellow lights flickering through the water. When lights flickered close enough to the shore, you could see the entire event take place: the female releasing the bright green/yellow glow, waiting for a male to swoop, releases it’s sperm, and the females are then fertilized. We could literally see sexual reproduction happening right before us! It was amazing, unfortunate that it only lasted a couple of minutes, I could have watched it happen for hours, it was awesome! Anyways, that’s all for today! Was a busy day and tomorrow we are going sailing from 9:30-2! Stay tuned!
Day Six: May 14, 2017
Date: May 14, 2017
Time: 9:00am-2:30pm
Location: Pine Cay
Sites: Coral Reef 30 minutes off the shore.
Depths: 18 ft.
Today was a slower, more relaxing day, we went sailing on a beautiful 60 ft. boat, and cruised around the island. We made a pit stop about 30 minutes into our trip, and geared up to go snorkeling! We jumped right in and swam around looking at the coral reef about 40 feet off the back of the boat. Dr. Cangialosi pointed out the fire coral, which we hadn’t seen before. She said that fire coral actually grows over already existing coral, rocks, seaweed, or pilings. Dr. Cangialosi also warned us to stay away from them because they can be potentially dangerous by causing a local stinging or burning feeling. After doing some research on fire coral, I found that fire coral is actually more closely related to Hydrozoans than corals. In addition, we, as humans are particularly to blame for the spread of fire coral. Human impacts releases more sediment, nutrients, and pollutants into the ocean, ultimately stressing an already fragile marine ecosystem, which allows fire coral to leave in. Hearing this is actually very sad because where we snorkeled today was covered in fire coral, which means that these reefs have been subject to an immense amount of human stress.
After swimming around for a bit longer we loaded back up on the boat, and sailed away for about another hour, until we reached a private island, with a public beach, called Pine Cay. The captain told us there was a sand bar that had tons of sand dollars in there, he made it sound like I could reach down and touch five all at once. We were a little disappointed when only two of us found a sand dollar, and the rest of us found bits and pieces of sand dollars. Come to find out, that so many tourists had been there, that the sand dollars had been completely picked over (so it makes sense now).
We roamed around the beach for a while, commented on how blue the water was. I can honestly say I have never seen such blue water before in my life. Now I know I said that earlier on in the week, but somehow this water was even more blue than before! The sand was exceptionally soft too. When we came back to the boat we feasted on some chicken tenders, fruit, and chips. Eventually we sailed back to the dock, which was about another hour. This left us with a little bit of time to take nap and some photo opportunities. Overall it was an amazing day, and I can honestly say I have never had such an amazing vacation like this before. Beyond thankful for this amazing opportunity!
Day Seven: May 15, 2017
Date: May 15, 2017
Time: 9:00am-1:00pm
Location: The whole island: Blue Hills, Juba Sound, etc.
Sites: Schools, shopping center, etc.
Depths: 0 ft.
Today was our day off from scuba diving, while the other half of the group went diving, we explored the island. We drove through the Blue Hills, Dr. Strong pointed some local restaurants and land marks. We also drove through some of the local schools, including two high schools and a middle school, as well as a popular youth center. At some point during the drive we stopped by Provo Pony where I met a new friend!
Later on we also went shopping at the shopping center, got some trinkets and souvenirs. We also went to the Potcakes Place, and pet all the puppies, where we also saw Dr. Strong’s new puppy, too! They were so adorable, it was so hard to not try and take one home!
On our way to Jodi’s house, in search of Juba Sound, in which we kind of got lost doing so, we stopped because we had a beautiful view of Juba Sound. Despite it being a little overcast, it was still absolutely beautiful!
While driving around Blue Hills and the schools, it really was an eye opener. What really made me sad was the signs that said “Tourism is key,” it just sounds so wrong. These people are born into this lifestyle, forced into it, even the signs on the streets preach it, essentially enabling the tourism, and continuing to put a bandaid on the poverty that actually exists. It’s a sad, sad cycle. As tourists, we only like to see the beautiful beaches, fancy restaurants, and gorgeous scenery; they don’t want to see the depressing, realistic poverty that plagues the islands. And as a struggling government, in order to bring in money, you have to preach tourism, or whatever brings in the money, long enough so the bandaid can last. I believe it is important to see that these resorts are simply a distraction from the realistic, poor economy that actually surrounds these people. Reminds us how lucky and blessed we truly are, and that we should not take advantage of these people, nor should we necessarily support these resorts. However, it ends up being quite the conundrum, these resorts give these natives jobs, money, food on the table, opportunities for their kids and families. And while Turks and Caicos isn’t necessarily developed to the extend of say, Nassau, Bahamas or other islands, it someday will, unfortunately, and there probably isn’t a whole lot we can do. Ultimately though, I think seeing the reality of the island, and seeing the conditions these people live in day in and day out, is not only an eye opener, but is humbling, and a valuable experience.
Day Eight: May 16, 2017
Date: May 16, 2017
Time: 8:30 am-12:45pm
Location: West Caicos
Sites: Tons of Sponge and Pickering’s Place
Depths: 78 ft.
Today was our very last dive of the trip (*sad face*), and as they say, they saved the best for last. While it was my only my fifth dive thus far, it was about as good as it gets-which is just jaw-droopingly amazing. We started off at Tons of Sponge, our second time visiting this site, and it was even better than the last time. Because today was very overcast, dark, and rainy it was almost still night-time to the marine life, so there was so much activity, and everyone was out. I easily saw over 10 Caribbean Spiny Lobsters, 5+ reef sharks, all the polyps were out and on display, a couple of great barracudas, and a spotted eagle ray. It was absolutely stunning, and hands down one of the best dives I have had yet, and will forever leave a lasting impression on me.
After coming up from our first dive, in complete awh, may I add, we quickly moved to the next location, in hopes to avoid the incoming storm and harsh winds. Along the way we came across the abandoned Ritz-Carlton hotels in West Caicos, and Allizae filled us in about the 100s of millions of dollars that were put in there, some rooms fully furnished, a private landing strip for private aircrafts, and now it is just rotting away, and not being put to use whatsoever. She also talked about how when we was younger she used to go camping there all the time, and now they can’t because of the Ritz-Carlton sitting there doing absolutely nothing. Such a sad waste of our resources, time and money, makes me angry.
Anyways, we finally landed in Pickering’s Place, right off West Caicos, still a little overcast, and a slight wind picked up, making a small current. We all jumped right in, and we were all down to the bottom within two minutes tops. I was super excited my ears did not give me any problems, allowing me to conserve my air, and do more exploring instead of wasting it for 10 minutes equalizing on the way down. We all reached the bottom in front of the boat, and as soon as it got into sight, we saw a seahorse! Come to find out, it’s extremely rare! We asked what kind of seahorse it was, since it wasn’t camouflaged, to our surprise, and Stephanie responded “a lonely one!” It was literally sitting there on a piece of soft coral, floating, all by itself, not camouflaged, essentially sitting in plain sight for us to see. The other group yesterday did not see a seahorse, so it was pretty special! We continued our dive, a little different than last time, definitely not nearly as many as Caribbean Spiny Lobsters out like our last site, but we were able to see the Atlantic Spadefish and a Gray Angelfish, which we hadn’t seen yet, so that was remarkable to see, as well. It was nice to be able to enjoy the dive instead of worrying about all the skills, this time. I wish we had at least one more day to enjoy it, but no matter what, I think I would just want more and more days. I have been truly blessed to have done all that we have done these past eight days, and I hate to see it end, however, I hope this won’t be the last time I’ll be down here. So here’s to a couple more days in the future (with some pretty awesome friends and instructors)!
Day Nine: May 17, 2017
Date: May 17, 2017
Time: 11:00 am-12:30pm
Location: Providenciales
Sites: Smith’s Reef
Depths: 20 ft.
Today was suppose to be our kayaking trip through the mangroves, but unfortunately it got cancelled early on in the morning. This was a huge bummer for a lot of us, it was something we were really looking forward to, however we tried to make the most out of the day because it was our last full day on the island! So, after breakfast we grabbed our snorkeling gear and headed to Smith’s Reef. This time, though, we decided on a different side of Smith’s Reef to change it up a bit!
This side of Smith’s Reef was much more rockier, and it didn’t help much that it was low tide. After we made our way through the rock forest we swam out in search of the coral reef. It was pretty easy to find, we probably could have walked a little farther, but we were able to see where the turtle grass ended and the coral reef started. We swam against the current, winds were strong, and it was a little rainy and cold, but we didn’t mind! After snorkeling around for a bit, we met up, and started talking about what we saw. All of us agreed that most of these fish were juveniles, so we concluded that it was probably a large nursery that we were seeing. Dr. Cangialosi pointed out a Dusky Damselfish being extremely territorial over a piece of the reef. He was charging at every single fish, no matter the size, even if it was 10X larger than him, warning them to stay away. We were thinking that he may have been protecting some of the eggs that we probably recently laid there. This also coincided with our theory of it being a nursery area.
After doing a little more snorkeling, many of us got a little chilly, so we made our way out of the water, and back to our room eventually. The rest of the day was dependent on the weather, so many of us took advantage of our time by catching up on some work. At dinner time we all got dressed up nice and fancy to go to the Mango Reef, an extremely nice restaurant we were fortunate enough to experience! We had a lot of fun, a nice last family dinner before we have to leave (*sad face*).
Day Ten: May 18, 2017
Date: May 16, 2017
Time: 8:30 am-12:45pm
Location: Coral Gardens Providenciales Airport
Today was our departing day, the day we go home. We knew it would be a long day, we had a 3 hour flight, then a 5 hour layover, and then another 2 hour flight. We knew we wouldn’t be getting into Boston Logan Airport until almost 1:00 am, so we braced ourselves for a long traveling day (which are the worst sometimes).
Today was especially eventful and sad for many reasons, and reminded me, and many of us how lucky we were to have had the opportunity to come on this trip, and experience all these amazing things that we otherwise probably wouldn’t have. I learned that life is too short, and in a blink of an eye, when you aren’t looking, things can change, whether you want them to or not. I learned that your friends are your family too, and you need to treasure every moment with them. I learned that it is okay, to not be okay, and sometimes you have to let it out, even if it is in the middle of the airport, balling uncontrollably on the phone to your mom. I learned, life throws you curve balls, and you decide whether you are going to sit there and watch it pass you by, and strikeout, or you can swing the bat and see what happens, maybe you connect with the ball, maybe you don’t, and sometimes you still strikeout, but at least you tried. I learned to be thankful for every single day on this earth, no matter how crappy, or horrible it was. While I really don’t want to go into details about today, and probably never will, I learned so much, and I just wanted to thank my friends and professors who stood behind me today. So thank you all, for everything, and thank you for an amazing trip that I will never forget.
Jaime Marsh's E-Port 