Diving, Dissecting and PIE!

We woke up at 6:30. While the others were snorkeling, we walked around the island, LuRue took more pictures of the island to show Mark and Teresa, because when they went to ReefCI, it was on another island. After breakfast, we went out for a snorkel and did a lap around the island. We saw two triggerfish, which is pretty unusual to see. We saw all three kinds of angel fish, queen, grey and french.

We had lunch and at around two, Simon took us out for our last scuba dive for this trip. We were gone for about an hour. There wasn't much unusual to see, but we still enjoyed being down under the water. Simon pointed out a few things, but sometimes neither one of us knew what he was pointing at.

Right after we got back, Jason, the marine biologist, was dissecting some lion fish as part of the work of Reef CI. A few of us were helping. Lisa and Montana took turns measuring, checking for "noodles" (small projections that indicate a juvenile), then filleting. The next step was the interesting part. After prying out the stomach, you had to see if it had gonads or eggs, then the stomach was removed and the contents were analyzed. Montana says that LuRue was too much of a wimp to try it, but LuRue has gutted her share of chickens and fish & preferred to be the photographer. It was amazing how the things could be identified even though they were extremely tiny, such as a quarter of an inch long. A log was kept and will be sent in to a group that collects information for Belize.

Montana joined a game of volleyball while LuRue visited with some of the other guests. They served some delicious curried lobster for dinner.  And then after the meal was over, everyone began singing Happy Birthday to both Montana and to Harry, who is the nephew of the owner & works on the island. A scrumptious lime cream pie was brought out for each birthday person & was quickly devoured. What a great way to end the day!