One of the bridges going up as we left Miami.
To start off our early and amusing adventure we began with a 5 o'clock wake up call. Everyone awoke to await the take off of the ship and see the morning sunrise, but what made it even better was the late night view of the city. There is so much to see at night and the view was magnificence which gave everyone their big boost of energy. Everyone wanted to see the bridges go up so that we can finally make our way out of the city and man what a view!
Sunrise on the crossing.
Then, we finally got a chance to see a fish that most, if not all, of us had
never seen before: Flying Fish. Those fish really do fly and can glide for a
long period of time. The long-awaited sunrise was a beautiful sight, rising
above the pure blue water. We started breakfast at around 7 o'clock: our first
breakfast on the boat so far! With chocolate chip muffins on everyone's' plates,
you'd think we'd be awake, but we're all pretty tired from our day yesterday.
Getting ready to launch off on the first snorkel
To pass time in between our long boat ride on the open sea and our arrival in
Bimini, we all read over an article about the affect of sunscreen on coral.
Did you know that a recent study found that sunscreen contributes to coral bleaching?
It doesn't allow the algae, or zooxanthelae, in the polyps to photosynthesize,
resulting in the polyp getting rid of the useless algae, literally starving
the coral.
We finally arrived to Bimini and were all shocked to see the beautifully clear water. We had to go through customs and make sure that we were all legal visitors in Bimini. After we finished with customs everyone who was legal went to a straw market to roam around, see the town people, and buy souvenirs. We were shocked to see all the conch shells lined up on the fences of Bimini road. We visited the museum to learn about Bimini history as well. Did you know that the sponging industry used to be the driving force of Bimini economy?
Finally to cool off from a long day in the sun, we began our first snorkel trip
around La Chance Island. We saw many neat fish during our snorkel and many exotic
invertebrates, including the flamingo tongue snail. We also saw a group of small
squid. It is rare to see more than one at a time in Bimini, especially in the
daytime, so it was amazing to be so up close with such a large school of squid.
You could even see them communicating through body language and tentacle movements.
Along with squid, we also had the privilege to see an octopus, spotted moray
eel, and many of the fish species we've learned about in HSMB.
We saw a lot of Curly Tailed Lizards during our debris survey.
To wrap up the day, we did a second snorkel to one of Bimini's smaller islands
to pick up garbage. The group "Marine Debris" led us through this
experience. Also, the Plankton Tow group had the chance to catch many plankton,
or plankton-sized creatures in our plankton tow nets. On the little island we
spotted some curly tailed lizards just roaming about on the sand. We also saw
little fish in a small pond in a low area on the beach. We made our way back
onto the boat and as we were snorkeling we finally saw a stingray. To finally
end our day we dried our clothes, rinse off the salty water, and gather together
to have a delicious dinner made by Chef Matt.
Carly and LaParrish
Photos by Leigha
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