Ella ’24 and Katie ’24, recount the groups busy first day trying new foods, visiting a Blue Hole, and learning about different fish anatomies.
After a very early morning, we finally arrived at the Island School! We started with a tour of the campus, where we met Joseph, one of the farmers here at the school. He was very enthusiastic and informative, showing us how to grow pineapples and letting us try fresh asparagus! The group then tried moringa, a very bitter seed with many health benefits. The fresh coconut water hit the spot after Joseph showed us how to open one.
After lunch and the swim test, the group boarded two boats as we set out to explore the waters around the Island School. We made three stops, first stopping at coral patches, then to a blue hole in the sea floor, and finally stopping at Grunt Alley (another reef site).
Ella: My favorite part of the outing was playing with the Christmas Tree Worms, an animal that lives within the corals, and hides when water is pushed onto them. The Blue Hole was very interesting as it is a natural phenomenon, it was wicked deep and had busy marine life.
Katie: My favorite part of our boat trip was watching the fish swim upside down in the blue hole, because they were confused where the ocean floor was. Additionally, it was very interesting to see lionfish (at a distance) and hold a live starfish.
We finished our day with a fish ID lesson, playing a game of family feud fish IDing edition. After a rough start, our team made a historic comeback in the last rounds, defeating the other team 15 to 12! We were rewarded with the wonderful power of granting dish duty to the other team. We learned about different fish families and specific anatomical characteristics that defined them.
