Ask the 'nauts!

We ask all of the SCUBAnauts to keep a journal during our science expeditions.  This is both so they can take notes during lessons and to record their thoughts throughout the trip.  Here is a sample of some of their journal entries from the Bahamas trip.  Thank you to our trip helpers Alyx and Courtney for deciphering the ‘nauts’ handwriting and typing these up!

August 1, 2011 – Our Travel Day

“It’s very beautiful here on the island. Today I learned that there are over 700 islands that make up the Bahamas. I want to keep my eye and camera out on the acropora corals and all the neat creatures”

- Brooke Liston

“Learning new things makes me happy. Weird, but yes happy. We are learning about surveys and new dive stuff. I’ve learned so much; there are so many types of branching corals here.”

-Sofia Alaniz

August 2, 2011 – First Day of Diving

“Today we started diving; our first dive was at Plate’s reef. The visibility was amazing and it was more than 60 feet down. I saw PAST – yellow mustard hill coral, DLAB [Diploria labyrinthiformis] and a plethora of fish”

-Brooke Liston

“On the dive this morning I saw PCOL [Porites colonensis] and live MFRA [Montastraea faveolata] for the first time and they were everywhere. First dive was good and we saw some large snapper and grouper. On the second dive I saw a 7 foot Reef Shark up close with Kaedon. I saw an Indigo Hamlet and it is now my favorite fish. I thought the Tiger Grouper we saw was cool looking too; especially since it let us go right up to it.”

-Conner Hutchinson 

“My dive buddy (Conner H.) and I dove around, watching other people observe coral, and when we looked up we saw a 6-7 foot Reef Shark! There was also a 2 ½ foot Tiger Grouper and a lot of other awesome fish and corals.”

-Kaedon Hamm

“I have to say that the best dive was for sure dive number 3 at a site called “Shark Alley,” it lived up to its name. We saw four Caribbean reef sharks; it was probably the highlight of my trip, seeing sharks in their habitat is exactly why I wanted to start diving on top of my love for the ocean.”

Connor Waugh

“The best dive was “Shark Alley” during shark week, it was amazing. Six sharks were circling me and Ashley while we were doing point count. The sharks were so cool, one had a hook on both sides of its mouth. The last dive was in 4-12 feet of water there was a ton of dead Elkhorn Coral and some recovering.”

Colin Cassick

“Observation 60 foot dive, visibility perfect. It was a huge and I mean huge reef. The second was a 45 foot dive in “shark Alley,” I saw like 10 Caribbean sharks and got a picture with one. I also did point count on this dive. For our 12 foot dive it had really nice Elkhorn Coral [Acropora palmata] all over.”

-Ashley Hilbert

“Day 2 I saw two huge Cubera Snapper. I also saw 3 huge grouper and 4 Caribbean reef sharks; the “Shark Alley” was the coolest. One of the sharks had a hook in its mouth that had to be at least a 17/0 hook. The last dive was only 10feet and I really could’ve snorkeled it, but I really wanted to get in another dive.”

-Tyler Harder

August 3, 2011 - Second (and last) Day of Diving

“We went to “Ben’s Blue Hole” for the 3rd dive. Connor and I were doing coral surveys when a curious grouper came up to us to see what we were doing. He was so close that we actually petted him. We went to “Picasso’s Gallery” and saw another reef shark that swam under us during our buoyancy stop.”

-Kiana Hamm

“The second dive had 3 sharks and they came really close. As the day went on I found myself knowing more and more fish. The 3rd and 4th dive were really amazing, it is a lot better diving here than in Florida.”

-Danny Alaniz

“Today we had to do fish surveys and I learned how to identify Black Grouper, because they are a little confusing. On the 3rd dive at “Ben’s Blue Hole” there were 2 sharks that were following us and came within 4-5 feet of us!

-Alex Coronado

“The shallows had lots of branching corals that had the ability to move with the ebb and flow of the tides, as opposed to in the deeper water where there is less tidal action. The second dive was at “Papa Doc’s Wreck” and my buddy Sofia and I conducted our point count survey. On the two afternoon dives it was cool to see two invasive lionfish in the wild as well as several rays (“Ben’s Blue Hole”) and some squirrelfish (“Picasso’s Gallery”). Overall it was a great trip, even though the stupid weather caused it to end early.”

-Jeremy Koch