Waves
crashing, sky an ugly gray color, raining mostly nonstop, winds that just made
it worse….when you put this all together it basically means no snorkeling.
Since we really couldn’t go into the water we had to settle with studying most
of the day. Sitting in class; learning more about the coral reefs, the animals
that live in them, the history of Jamaica, and so much more. Let’s just say
that we covered a lot of material.

The first time I went into the water
I found a conch shell in pretty good condition I looked inside the shell and
didn’t see anything in it, but when I got back to the dock something poked my
finger. Looking inside the shell again, more carefully, I saw a couple of
spinney legs sticking out of the shell. It was a type of Brittle Star called
Blunt-Spined Brittle Star. So, guess what! Today one of the Brittle Stars came
out and I found it hiding in the corner of the wet lab table that my group was
using. It was so cool! I picked it up and it felt like there where little blunt
needles walking across my hand. The Blunt-Spined Brittle Star has a ton of
these little blunt needles coming off its legs and it’s a light dark brown
color with a pale stripe down the middle of each legs. The thing that I thought
was cool was that the center of it was really soft and squishy. I can’t wait
for the other Brittle Star to come out of the shell.

Even though I didn’t get to go into
the water a few people did and they saw a lot of really cool things. Some
people saw a Lion fish, Barracuda, Upside Down Jellyfish, and a Balloon Fish.
Can’t wait for the weather to get better so I can get back into the water!

– Sarah D.

Blunt-spined brittle star

Banded brittle star.