So the trip is in its final stretch and so far this trip has been a real blast. I can honestly say I do not miss New York in the slightest. The weather for our trip has been nothing short of fantastic and I am dreading going back to NY.

The slick trumpet fish that gave me a hard time to photograph.

We are currently in the middle of our final projects and I am quite happy with how my experiment is progressing. My study is on how the deflation rate of balloonfish (Diodon holocanthus) varies due to differences in lighting, food consumption, and the deflation difference between balloonfish in the wild compared to ones in captivity. I am glad to say that night snorkeling is still the same as my last post, surprising and mysterious. I am still seeing an amazing amount of creatures in the bay, varying from creepy crawlers to mesmerizing fish.

The two lionfish I saw near the reef crest.

A couple of days ago Oded and I decided to go on a mini adventure, over the reef crest. On the way we saw the usual fish and creatures, varying from damselfish to stingray. It wasn’t until after we crossed over the very rocky reef crest that I saw some new fish that I was yet to see on this trip.Crossing the reef crest however is a formidable mission because I now truly understand the saying “fish out of the water” because when crossing the reef crest I was scraping against the coral instead of swimming in between them.

A lizard fish I saw on the long journey back from the reef crest

We finally made it through and as soon as we crossed the reef crest we found two lionfish. That was exciting for me because I was yet to see one in the wild. The next fish we stumbled upon was a trumpet fish. This guy was cool; he was slim and thin but had great speed. When snorkeling near the reef crest we also saw a lot more species of coral and many more fish out than in the bay. Over the reef crest Oded and I slowly realized that the reef crest was like a barrier separating two different worlds.

– Aron