I chose to sleep in this morning since I woke up with a sore throat and so I missed the early morning snorkel, along with everyone else apparently. After breakfast we had quite a bit of free time before a reef fish lecture today. I went and laid out on the beach and attempted to study for the species ID test.
We got to take a boat ride to parts of the outer reef which was wonderful. I borrowed one of the GoPros today and got to learn how terrible I am at taking videos. There was such diversity of sea life so hopefully I can rifle through my videos and scrounge up some worthy footage or photos at least. The only problem I faced was that I couldn't equalize cause of this stupid sickness. Oh well I still really enjoyed the snorkel. There were tons of fish everywhere. It was pretty sick. I am seriously pooped though so this blog post is gonna be even less interesting than my previous ones. Looking forward to dinner, hopefully the stars will be out tonight but there's been pretty heavy cloud cover today. That's all for now kiddos
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The day started with an attempt of an early morning snorkel. We went out at 6:30am, but the wind caused the tides to really pick up and sediment was all kicked up in the water. This made it pretty difficult to see anything and the snorkel was quickly called to an end. With that we were up early and just sat outside the kitchen to have some morning tea.
As the tide was starting to fall back, we went out to get data for our invertebrate lab. I was worried that we would have to be full on swimming in the water, but luckily, they had fallen enough to allow us to walk through and push the sediment cores into the floor to get our samples. This in itself was still a little tricky and the waves would push me over as I was kneeling down to push in the core. I am really thankful we were able to just walk the reef because it would've taken much much longer if we were full on in the water. Janna was a great partner to have during this data collection and I was grateful to have her help. We then took the sediment samples back to the lab and looked at them under a dissecting scope to count up all the different invertebrates in them. While it was a bit time consuming it was fun to look through the samples and spot them. I basically only found annelids and arthropods, but it was interesting work nonetheless. Once we finished up Edd, Russ, Sam, and I went on a later afternoon snorkel. The water was cold, but we were able to see some baby black tips. There was also a big chonker daddy black tip that stared us down a bit as it swam through. Stingrays scattered the seafloor and to avoid the masses of them we ended up going to the jetty to get out of the water. As we headed back to the jetty, one sting ray started swimming towards us and made Russ and I quickly back up to get out of its way. It was good to get back in the water and check out the reef after a failed attempt this morning. The brisk wind was quite chilling once I got out but it was totally worth it. Then it was dinner and tonight we had beef, some veggies, potatoes, and mousse for dessert. I completely gorged out and had second helpings of everything. That brings an end to the day, now I just plan on checking out the stars after a short walk to the jetty and then going to bed. It was a busy day but another good one. To be continued tomorrow... Today started off early in the morning with a 6:30am snorkel. I guess technically it actually started at 5:30am with Russ's alarm playing "When I Grow Up" by The Pussycat Doll's (which is how we all should start our mornings). But as soon as we hit the water it was worth. All sorts of rays littered the floor beneath the jetty and many turtles were also spotted also swimming around or chilling on the seafloor. Everywhere you looked there was some majestic little sea critter doing its morning routine. I was partnered with Hailey this morning and the first shark we saw was a white tip. Seven or eight more sharks were spotted throughout the snorkel, but the rest were all black tip. I loved the snorkel though. It seems that the early morning is the time to check out all the sea life.
We also had our first lab and analysis on benthic cover. We ended up just doing a reef walk to get our data so it was finished up pretty quick. It was nice to finally learn and use some real marine ecology data techniques. The lab write up went alright, Macs are kinda crap when it comes to working excel, but we got our graph figured out eventually. It took me a minute to get going as well, I forgot there was actual school work to do for this class and it wasn't just a nice island vacation. But all in all it was still fun to learn new stuff and actually use my brain again. In our down time Russ, Sean, and I went to check out some of the other shores on the island. We went to North Beach in the early afternoon. It was so beautiful, the sand was super soft, and we basically had that part of the island shore to ourselves. It was great to lay out on the beach and just relax. Later on we ended up checking out Shark's Bay. This was also a nice little private section of the beach. Right away we were able to spot some rays chilling out in the water. Some guy there ended up pointing out all the pumice rock to Nora which we found out was volcanic rock from New Zealand that ends up drifting onto the shore here. Another super cool thing about this island to learn about. Checking out the sunset again was also incredible. A family of eagle rays swam out in front of the dock. A beautiful sight to see and I plan on watching as many sunsets as I can here. I did forget to mention that last night Sean and I went out onto the jetty to get a glimpse of the stars. I have never seen so many stars in my life! And the milky way was so sweet to see so clearly! I finally understand the naming of it. It's crazy to think that a ton of the stars above me I've never had the opportunity to see. I do need to figure out where the Southern Cross constellation is in the sky. But I just love how little light pollution there is here so the night sky is fully visible and able to be seen in its full glory. I'm definitely take some time to check out the stars each night I'm here to really appreciate it for the limited time I get to be here. I just gotta end with some more praise for Pat. I go in for food with high expectations for dinner, but somehow he still ends up exceeding them. The man is a god and a legend. Tonight for dinner we had quinoa and chicken which absolutely smacked. The day had finally come to leave for Heron Island. I was a little sad to leave the Gladstone Backpackers hostel, but it was only temporary as I'll be back on June 9th. The ferry ride went by fairly quickly. It was interesting to watch how, as we left the mainland and headed towards the island, nearly only water was surrounding us. The wind over the ocean and from the speed of the ferry was rather strong. This ended up causing Brynn's jacket to blow up like an airbag and I'm not sure why but it cracked me up so much. Nothing else too significant happened during the ride, but the excitement grew as the island approached.
The hostel setup was a lot better than I expected and there was plenty of space for me to actually empty out my suitcase and set up a spot for my clothes, toiletries, and other random crap. It looks like we'll be living in rather comfortable conditions during our stay. Not to mention that already the lunch and dinner we've had have both really hit the spot. Pat is the cook here and while I haven't talked to him much I would die for him. We ended up doing an afternoon snorkel which was absolutely amazing. It was cool to finally be able to spot and see all the species of echinoderms, coral, and fish we have to study for our ID test out in their natural habitat. As we were headed back to the shore Cat spotted a turtle. We were able to follow it for a bit as it swam over the ocean floor before finishing our return to shore. We also went out onto the dock and watched the stunning sunset as it settled below the ocean horizon. More turtles, a black tip shark, and a ray were spotted as we hung out on the jetty. Afterwards it was dinner which once again was incredible. The first day was spectacular and left me looking forward to the days left to come along with the many great memories to be made. |