Our second to last full day in Jamaica, started out with a bang. The divers (minus Dante) and two brave snorkelers (Hannah and Jordyn) were RTG at 7 am, excited for our second trip to Rio Bueno, the giant wall of coral reef. Sammi, Dr. Warren, and I giant strode into the clear water, descending to a sand channeling to make any final adjustments to our gear. After a minute we swam to the edge of the wall and began to descend. All of the corals, algae, and sponges were amazing to see, but they had nothing on what was about to come into view. As we were swimming along, we spotted a large sea turtle swimming below us. We chased the turtle down to around 80 feet before giving up, and watching it swim into the blue abyss. The excitement failed to fade as we also saw a giant crab, a Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus), and massive schools of fish. Watching the schools wind their way down the wall from above was incredibly cool. We also got to watch Dr. Warren spear some invasive lionfish, helping to clean up the reef. Overall it was an amazing dive I will never forget (and have to remember to log).

An unidentified sea turtle (it’s probably a green sea turtle) swimming below me

School of fish swimming above near the top of the wall

-Candy Heart Caitlin