January 3 was our first full day in Jamacia. After 2 days (for me) of travel, I managed to conk right out at 8 pm the night before and wake up bright and early (6:30 am). As someone who is from Nevada, I don’t get access to the ocean or really any deep water very often, so being able to snorkel pretty much whenever I want is really nice. Today I spent a total of I think three hours swimming around, but I know most people definitely spent more. I’m a senior marine biology student, but this is the first time I have actually gotten a chance to see the organisms I’ve been learning about out in the wild. In just today, I and my little group of four were able to identify about 25 species from pictures we took, and we still have a bunch to go.

Massive Starlet Coral spotted by Ari

My friend Ari spotted this massive starlet coral and was trying to get me to take a picture. For some reason, I could not figure out what she was talking about, but I did end up finding it and got one of the best photos from the day.

Finger Corals, Sea Urchin, and Sea Anemone

Ari found this thin finger coral also, but she did not notice the sea urchin inside of it, the clubtip finger coral next to it, or the anemone on the other side. We still have not identified the anemone, but we spent a good 20 minutes trying to after dinner.

Parrot Fish! (and Blue Tang)

I saw this school of fish and had no idea what they were (except for the bright blue one), but managed to get a pretty good picture of the one right in the middle. Later, when we were trying to ID them, we figured out they was princess parrot fish. While interesting by itself, my first ever book report (in kindergarten) was on parrot fish so it was really cool to finally be able to see one, even if it was 13 years later.

Can’t wait to see what else we find!
• Mango Mae