Today was a rough one. Yesterday after one of our snorkeling trips I realized I had some hives on my legs. This morning there were even more and it had spread down my legs. I am not quite sure what it is I am allergic to but I was able to visit the resort nurse to get some allergy meds and itch cream. Fingers crossed they are better tomorrow. Today we participated in coral watch (and I finally swam with a black tipped reef shark). What we did was take a color guide and then record the darkest and lightest color of the coral to track coral health. Once the data was recorded, we input our observations into the coral watch database. What is super cool about this project is that it is for all reefs, and anyone can participate. If you are a diver or love to snorkel on reefs you can get the color guide and input the data on the coral watch website as well. After the coral survey we dried off and had a lecture on the different fish on the reef. It was so cool to learn that there are no fish that you will find just on the reef. Everyone of them can exist in other ocean habitats. We also learned about coral bleaching and how losing the great barrier would mean the loss of tons of species. After the lecture today we picked out our partners for our research projects. I am super excited to start working on this but we are still figuring out what it is we want to study. Ill let you guys know what we decide on. The rest of the day was super chill. I ended up taking a long nap because the allergy meds knocked me out. When I woke up I was able to watch the sunset with my class mates and we saw a few black tip sharks swimming around and several spotted eagle rays. It was a beautiful way to end the day and I am excited for the morning swim.
See ya tomorrow Taylor
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AuthorTaylor is currently a senior at Utah State University studying environmental studies and biology. Taylor has always loved the ocean and plans to attend Western Washington University for a masters in marine ecology. Taylor first found a love for marine science as a child growing up in the Pacific North West. ArchivesCategories |