Hardbottom Community Snorkeling

Today, our marine science group went snorkeling to a hardbottom community. A hardbottom is a type of coral reef community that is close to the shore and is dominated by algae, corals and other organisms. We went around an island and the currents at first were gently gliding us towards the forward direction and ended up pushing us away from the boat in the end. It was very hard to snorkel when the entire class was literally clinging on to rocks and anything else they can grab onto.

We saw many marine organisms including brain coral, brittle stars, sea urchins (Diadema antillarum), mollusks, sea cucumbers, a lobster, a fire worm, and Sergeant Major fish. While we were on the boat ride back, we saw a dolphin swimming!

Tomorrow we get to swim in open water. It will probably remind me of the movie Jaws, as anything with murky water ends up with a shark coming right for that particular person.