After completing my diving certification earlier this week, I was able to take part in my first open water dive that was not part of my certification training. Ten of us went out on two boats towards the dive site, and after struggling to maintain our balance on the boats as we got our gear on, we were in the water. While the certification dives were also fun in their own right, it was great being able to finally go on a dive where I was able to not worry about reviewing and going over dive skills. It was also really nice to be able to bring my camera in the water and take photos of the organisms I saw throughout the dive. Highlights from this dive included several large barrel sponges, some very large sea fans, and an invasive lionfish that I was able to point out to Professor Warren so that he could spear it. Another thing of note that I saw on this dive was a large green polychaete worm that I had hoped for identification purposes was a species I had not yet seen, but after having read through the identification books it appeared to just be a variant of the already seen this trip Bearded Fireworm. It was overall a great experience and I am really looking forward to the upcoming dives in the course.

The lionfish I spotted on the dive.

John