Day Six: Coral assessment and project dives, beach lunch, and night dive
Yet another beautiful and busy day in Roatan! After breakfast, the group headed out for a two-dive morning. The first dive was devoted to our ongoing coral assessment project for Coral Watch. The students used color charts to monitor any bleaching that may be occurring. After which the data is entered on to a spreadsheet and sent to the project headquarters in Queensland, AU. On the second dive the group started to prepare for their research projects. We returned to the facility for a nice lunch on the beach and then the student got some well deserved free time. A couple went horseback riding, others went to the pool, while a few just took a nap. Then it was off to lecture, where we discussed the mangrove ecosystem that we will visit tomorrow morning. If that wasn’t enough, we did our night dive following lecture and for nine of the students, that was a first. It was a good dive and everyone decided that they really liked night diving.