Day Two: Check out dive
For most of the students, today was their first open-water ocean diving experience and it went very well. After breakfast everyone gathered for the pre-dive briefing and skills check (mask flooding and regulator clearing), then we headed out to the reef. We worked on buoyance control and making sure everyone’s ears would clear. The checkout dive went well and all the students were excited to do a second dive after lunch. During the lunch break, everyone got to see the dolphin show going on right outside their rooms (put on by the marine lab). Then we headed out for our second dive where we worked on coral identification. The group got to see a nurse shark, three turtles, a large grouper eating a lobster, and lots of species of coral. Before dinner Jennifer (the marine labs director) gave a talk on Reef Monitoring techniques and then after dinner the students were treated to a stimulating lecture on the history of coral reefs.