Island Times Blog

What a great day full of island fun! We finished up the field portion of our introduction to scientific diver specialty course with an awesome wall dive called Haven 117 near Jost Van Dyke (continued…)

Students focused on identifying and recording fish, invertebrate and coral species. It was clear that they had all improved their SCUBA and monitoring skills, and they surprised themselves with how many of the reef creatures they had already learned to identify. After lunch we hiked the Bubbly Pool Trail and explored the coastal habitats we had been studying – sandy shore, seagrass, salt pond, mangrove and rocky shore. After the hike we stopped at a local restaurant called Foxy’s Taboo and enjoyed some delicious, homemade key lime pie – yummy! We finished up the afternoon with some dinghy driving lessons and turtle tagging. And with a little luck on our side, we caught a large green sea turtle. This was the first time most of our students had ever seen a turtle in the wild, let alone up close and personal. The turtle tagging and monitoring program is a collaborative project in which some SeaTrek staff members work with the Conservation and Fisheries Department to get trained and certified to capture and tag hawksbill and green turtles in the area. This turtle was a recaptured turtle so the data will be especially important in terms of learning more about green turtle distribution and growth rates. After all the excitement of capturing our first turtle, we returned to Sandy Spit and anchored for the night. What a phenomenal day!