The Balloon Fish just hanging out by the docks. Photo Credit: Lucus

As the last few days come and go, we are all preparing for the end of this trip and of this class. These past two days we have mostly been working on some group project Dr. Warren and Dr. Peterson gave to the class. One having to do with transects and the other having to do with sorting through sediments and finding how much diversity there is in even small sections of the ocean. We also had out Identification test yesterday. We were all pretty nervous at first but it was not as nerve racking as we thought it would be and now I know that a Donkey Dung Sea Cucumber’s scientific name is Holothuria mexicana. After the test today, everyone mostly just relaxed and started to study for our test on the course material, which is today. While studying together on the dock, a group of us saw a cute Balloon fish (Diodon holocanthus). It wasn’t scared of us and even came up to our hands when we would lightly splash the water. It even let us pet it. It was a good break from all of the stress and anxiety placed on us these past few days.

-Julia