Today was absolutely unreal. One of the professors leading our trip, Dr. Catapano, my roommate here, Kelli, and I all went scuba diving. I only just got certified last semester through the PE class at UNCW and have only done a few dives in some springs in Florida, so I had no idea what to expect. Today we did two local dives on the reef just out off the island. The first dive we did was at a spot called "Mermaid's Liar." As soon as I went under the water I was completely overwhelmed. First by how perfect the visibility was- just like a swimming pool- and second by all of the color. There was so much to see and explore. The reef was incredibly vibrant and diverse with hundreds of different kinds of coral and other plant life. And I've never seen fish like the ones I was swimming with today. There were fish of all sizes and every color of the rainbow. One fish even looked like a real life rainbow fish that reflected different colors as it swam by. We also saw a large sea turtle, but it was kind of far away so it just looked like a gray blob before it disappeared. Our dive master carried a spear to kill any lion fish that we might see. Apparently there is an overabundance of lion fish here so they are trying to control the population. He speared one not long after we descended then just carried it around on the end of his spear for the rest of the dive. At one point, I was swimming right behind our dive master when I saw something big swim up from behind me. It was a nurse shark! It was so close that if I hadn't been so startled I could of reached out and touched it. But it wasn't by me long because it was headed straight for the lion fish that was on our dive master's spear! I watched, not more than four feet away, as our dive master fed the nurse shark the lion fish right off of his spear! That was definitely the highlight of the first dive.
In between dives, they took us back to the dock and let us eat some fresh fruit while they switched out our tanks. I had a piece of watermelon and orange, but I couldn't eat much else because I was feeling pretty seasick. The water was surprisingly rough out over the reef. The boat rocked and bounced a lot up over the huge waves. My stomach didn't enjoy the ride. I will be buying seasick patches before my next dive.
Our second dive was at a spot that I think was called "San Pedro Reef." Just like the first dive, the water was crystal clear and the reef was breathtakingly beautiful. We couldn't have been swimming for more than five minutes, when I noticed Kelli doing the signal for turtle with her hands. Right below her was a loggerhead turtle! It wasn't a huge one, his shell wasn't more than a foot across but it was still so cool! He wasn't shy at all, he let me swim all around him and get really close. Then I got distracted when I saw two big nurse sharks coming our way. Just like the turtle, they weren't shy at all and came right up to us. I touched the first one really quick, lightly on the back. The second one got right up next to me and I gave it a nice, long stroke all the way down his back. It was one of the coolest feelings ever to actually pet a shark.
I had so much fun diving today and it was an amazing experience. I definitely plan on doing it again while I am here. I really want to do a night dive but we'll see what happens. After all, it's still only day 4!
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