Sunday Day 2

Ahoy, Happy Monday!

My first day on the ship was quite exciting! I rolled out of my bunk bright and early Sunday morning and grabbed some breakfast before our dive de-briefing and safety run down. Then we got all our dive gear together and put it into one of three smaller boats set in locks on the back of the larger vessel. After all our SCUBA gear was loaded, a huge crane on the back of the ship hoists each small boat into the air and deposits it into the water. After the small boats are in the water, we can board and take off for the reef where we will dive.

For each dive we swim a 6 ft metal pole down to the reef bottom and place it into a holder that was previously cemented on the reef floor. From the metal pole a 10 meter string is unraveled and held taught. One diver holds the line taught and swims around the pole and two other divers record: 1) all coral species and 2) coral disease and what species it appears on. These observations are taken between the 8 and 10 meter marks on the line. I was the line swimmer today, pretty exciting, haha. But, it’s a lot tougher to hold a line straight underwater than it is on land (why do you think this is??). This same scenario will be repeated each day at 3 or 4 different reefs all through the Florida Keys.

Today when I rolled backward into the water I saw 5 or 6 huge moon jellyfish (just like the ones in my photo album posted previously). They were beautiful as they were buoyed along by the currents, capturing microscopic algae and food particles to eat. Our dive today was just off Key West and right now we’re cruising out to the Dry Tortugas, one of the only coral reef protected areas in the U.S. I’ve been told we will be cruising all night while we’re sleeping in order to be there by morning.

It’s so strange to walk around on a moving ship (we can go about 12 knots in smooth seas – how fast is that??). The inside of the boat is quite spacious, you would never even know you were on a boat accept for the strange dizzy feeling you get now and then – plus it seems very hard to walk in a straight line – I hear you walk wobbly for a while once you get off the ship too. It’s hard to imagine I’ll be experiencing this rolling sensation for the next 8 days! Weird!

Well it’s off to a final dive de-briefing for the day where we will discuss what worked and what didn’t worked and how we can improve our sampling tomorrow. Maybe I’ll walk out to the bridge and see what the ocean looks like as the sun sets off the bow tonight.

Cheers!

P.S. We have a satellite connection to the internet – so it’s slow going uploading anything larger than 1 MB – I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to get many pictures uploaded while I’m here but I’ll try!