The date is May 28th, 2014. Our day begin as most days do with breakfast in the GRC cafeteria, followed by our usual gathering in one of the many blue trucks at the research center. The site we went to today was Sue Point, a last minute transition that turned out to be one of our most exciting snorkels to date. The goal of today’s snorkel was to explore this new reef which is one of the more exposed reefs on the island, allowing for the increased amount of pelagic organisms we encountered today. We geared up and waded into the shallow water and began to head out to the reef. Some of the more interesting organisms we encountered were the spotted eagle ray, a yellow stingray, a porcupine fish, and an octopus. Many of which were first sightings for us. Also, we encountered a tourist group from Club Med—a luxury resort on Salvador—on our snorkel; they seemed polite and were at the reef to admire its beauty to the same degree as us. After we left Sue Point, we revisited Monument and ate lunch courtesy of GRC Cafeteria, after which many of us stayed on the beach and relaxed, skipped stones, and studied, for the upcoming exam over the material covered in class since we first arrived.
After departing from Monument, we headed back into town to do some much needed shopping for gifts, bug spray, and best of all…Ice Cream! Some of the local students from grade school came by on bus and waved as always, in a friendly manner.
After we were finished shopping, we went back to the GRC and washed off our equipment and had an hour or two to relax. We then went to dinner at around 5:30 and enjoyed some nice chicken and local foods before returning to our studies. We had our exam at 7:30pm and it went well for the majority us, a few of us having questions along the way that were difficult for each individual. It covered the major aspects of the trip thus far, including species of organisms that we had seen on a regular basis, and over course material that seemed most important.
Alex Owens '17 and Will Cornacchione '16