After an eventful afternoon snorkeling at Snapshot Reef in Fernandez Bay, we took the next morning off from aquatic activities to survey the accumulation of trash on East Beach. This beach collects litter that escapes into the Atlantic Ocean from countries around the globe. In order to do so, we separated into three groups that broke down the beach into three transects that spanned thirty meters. We organized the trash into categories based upon their size (small, medium, and large) and by the type of material (metal, rubber, tar, glass, and etc.). The search for the trash was difficult because the dense Sargassum (brown algae) contained miniscule pieces of plastic. Our search of trash came up with a spectrum of interesting finds. There were a saline IV bag that outdated in 2000, some form of foreign military helmet and thick ropes that seemed to come from a large ship. After a long day of digging in through the Sargassum, there was time for a quick dip in the cool ocean. Right before leaving we found an unusual organism that seemed to be some type of juvenile eel.
Once arriving back to the GRC, Gerace Research Centre, globs of aloe were applied to almost everyone’s back and shoulders. The afternoon trip was to Sand Dollar, a beach at Rocky Point, where we snorkeled in the rough current that was even tough for the fish to swim. For this snorkeling trip we were supposed to choose five organisms and observe them for approximately five minutes each. We needed to record any activity that we saw such as feeding, hiding, or interacting. On the way in from the reef two girls, Tasha and Rachael, stumbled upon a large dark shadow that turned out to be a nurse shark. This set off an adrenaline rush throughout the nearby snorkelers. One snorkeler became too excited and the shark attacked them and vigorously tore their leg apart. Just kidding, no one was harmed by the nurse shark! By the time we were done, many of us left with sand dollars, rare seashells, incredible pictures, and other keepsakes.