This was the first dive of the season on the boat Moonshine. This was also my first saltwater dive because my checkout dives for getting certified were during a red tide and rough winds. The purpose of these dives was to do coral counts with something similar to a trundle wheel. We had to lay out a specific amount of the line and count the corals that it landed on. The first dive was on a natural reef and the second dive was supposed to be on an artificial reef so we could compare the different corals from the different reefs. The visibility on both of the dives was great (about 40 feet). The water was choppy as we went out there and it made the boat rock back in forth, so getting in and out of the water was a little more difficult. We found the first reef without too many difficulties, and then we conducted our survey. We found that there were three main types of corals in the reef. Unfortunately, we could not find the second reef when we went diving, so we could not compare the two reefs. The other divers weren’t feeling so well by the second dive, so it didn’t affect too many divers when we couldn’t find the reef . What we did instead of the coral surveys on the second dive was just to navigate back to the boat as we were underwater. On the second dive I also learned that keeping your arms closer to your body improves your balance underwater.
-Talon C.
