Island Times Blog

Day 8 / June 23 – Today we continued our Coral Monitoring Specialty Course training. During our two dives, students measured live coral coverage using both transects and quadrats. They also noted areas of bleached/diseased coral. The students are doing well with the specialty course and have improved in their buoyancy control, multi-tasking, and underwater communication skills – all of which are basic and essential skills to becoming an advanced SCUBA diver. The students have also been studying their fish species. After our dives we picked up a mooring ball at East End and rotated the students in turtle tagging and dinghy licensing. Both activities were a big hit – although we did not catch a turtle, we came close several times. After dinner it was time for a night snorkel near Little Jost Van Dyke. It was awesome! We saw all sorts of nocturnal creatures, including sea cucumbers, cleaner shrimp, puffer fish, squid, brittle stars, and much much more. We are really looking forward to another day of fun near JVD tomorrow.