I wake up at 6 pretty naturally now. Today was quite the day. I went on a walk right as the sun rose over the island. It was super windy and I could barely look ahead so it was quite a surprise when I saw something moving in the sand. I got close and noticed it was a baby turtle making its way from where it hatched to the ocean. The birds were circling above and waiting for their chance to swoop down and eat the baby. I stuck around until the turtle made it to the ocean. I had hoped that would be enough to prevent a premature death, but the seagulls were persistent and grabbed the little guy while he was out swimming. Sad start to the day. I found some what I thought were deflated ping pong balls along the shore but apparently they were actually old turtle eggs. We had breakfast and then we had a lab where we observe coral to see if they are dying or being bleached. We went out and along the way, there was a baby bird with broken legs stuck in a hole. We are not allowed to interfere with the animal life so we had to let him be. Another dead animal for the day. We got to the beach where we were going to be observing coral and right as people started snorkeling out, a tiger shark showed up. Tiger sharks are very aggressive so we all freaked out and got out of the water. In case you care, if you see a tiger shark you should calmly move as fast as possible to get out of the water. The appearance of the tiger shark made our professors quite concerned for our safety so we decided not to do the lab today. We went to lunch and then went to the outer reef. It was amazing out there. The water was clear and warm and we snorkeled for about 2 hours. We saw lots of fish, like tons of fish. We saw a bunch of turtles, a black tip reef shark, and a bunch of spotted eagle rays. While on the boat back to the island, we saw a spotted eagle ray do a giant leap out of the water. It got like 3 feet of air. It was so cool. For some reason it was unnaturally cold today even though there was no clouds and the sun was shining. Just one of those days the sun decides to not do anything. After the snorkel, I showered and got bundled up in clothes and then I got with my partner to propose our project for the next few days. It got approved! Our project is to observe rays out in Shark Bay on the East side of the island and see what they are doing over the next three days. Should be a fun project especially since we both love rays and we want to know more about them. The sunset was very nice tonight since there was no clouds. The stars were also amazing. Heron is quite something and I am very grateful and happy to be here. Again, thank you mom and dad for getting me on this trip.
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About MeI am the guy whose name is on the top there. I am a student who graduated with a BA from USU this year and finally gave in to Dr. Atwood's pestering to go on her Heron Island Class for coral reefs. People often call me really sassy and unhappy. What they don't know is that my resting face is angry, but I am usually pretty happy. ArchivesCategories |