Mission Journal 9 — Addie Coyac: Mission Day 4 and 5: Friday, June 18th, 2004
Here we are half way through our stay here in Aquarius, I’m very sad, but I have to look at the bright side, I still have 4 more days of diving. We have been in the water over 30 hours and accomplished so much. BOA is out and surveyed, we’ve taken 10 pictures at each node making that 1000 pictures and we’ve tied each array tightly to the reef in case of a storm. Tomorrow we are heading deep to look for certain species of algae that Jim Leichter samples for nutrient analysis. We also have a night dive scheduled where we will be using blue lights to look for juvenile corals. I’m excited about the night dive; lots of marine organisms become active at night and feed. Time goes by so quickly when I’m out diving. I wish I could slow it down and make this last forever. During my time in the water, I’ve been able to watch and interact with a lot of organisms. Yesterday, I interacted with a Hawksbill turtle. I was watching Dale take a compass heading and something brushed against me. I turned around to see this 100 pound turtle next to me. He hung around for a little while and then gracefully swam away. Today I found a porcupine fish getting cleaned by a cleaner shrimp; of course I coerced him to puff up. Dale took a picture that I will try to get on the web site soon. I’m still really happy to be down here and I’m having a great time. Time for bed!