A beautiful day out here in Discovery Bay. 

Now that our projects are in full tilt, I’d have to admit that my idea seemed so simple on paper. WRONG! On the second day, we’ve already encountered a few problems such as taking measurements for one of our variables (distance) and how to create our control. On the bright side, yesterday was a very productive day in which my partner and I were able to collect some data and best of yet, catch a dusky damselfish (Stegastus adustes) that only took us 3 days and countless hours in the water within those 3 days!

Now to talk a little about the fun part of the day ….

One of the few elkhorn corals and brain corals in sight

Today was an awesome day. I woke up, did my daily morning routine and waited for everyone to get ready to head out to Rio Bueno. It was beautiful outside. The sun was beaming down on my black speedo cap, got a little tan, jamming to Scarlett’s reggae music at 8:30 am– so far, so good. When we arrived at Rio Bueno, I was anxious to see how beautiful it really was. And I must say, it was a really great sight.

An Acanthurus bahianus feeding on some algae

I swam out to the wall where I was swimming about 20 ft above the bottom and then all of a sudden, I couldn’t see anything else below me. I saw a lot more corals, especially sea fans and also fishes in schools. A few fishes that I saw were the Spotlight parrotfish (Sparisoma viride), Bluehead (Thalassoma bifasciatum), Ocean Surgeonfish (Acanthurus bahianus), Blue Chromis (Chromis cyanea), large lionfish and plenty others including the territorial fish, S. adustes. After going under 20 ft countless times for 30 minutes, I was exhausted. Too bad I didn’t get to see a sea turtle!

Time to go back to work! And by the way, this is what it looked like on our way back. Good timing!

Upon our return, the sky looked like this …

 - Paulie