Okay, guys today’s been eventful in both good and bad ways. That
sounds ominous, I know. It’s called foreshadowing. So the day started off well
enough, with a nice breakfast frittata that had zucchini and bacon in it, which
was really good. This lured us all into the false sincerity that today would
work out well. Well, the joke was on us, because when we went out to Shark Bay for
a coral health lab, we had to cancel the lab before it ever really started. Do
you wanna know why? Sharks. Well, just one shark technically. It’s called Shark
Bay for a reason. So let me paint the picture:
There I was, putting on my flippers and getting ready to get
in the water when I hear Edd yell out “Shark!” from a little way’s a way. So
far, that call has been a good thing. However he starts yelling even harder at
Trisha because she’s in the water. His voice went from bass to soprano as he
yelled “Big shark, get outta the water!” This is when I turned around to see this
giant black mass (I didn’t have my prescription goggles on yet) right next to
Trisha. Edd kept yelling for a good while before Trisha finally turned around
and started to scramble out of the water. There were a few groups that were
already heading out to their own reef areas. This all changed when Trisha
yelled out “It’s a tiger shark, get the f*** out now!” waving at the others.
The thing is, sharks are normally chill if you stay away.
Tiger sharks are a different story. They’re aggressive, and we were just reminded
last night that if you see a tiger shark you get out of the water as quickly as
possible. They’re one of the only real dangers here on the island.
Some of the groups that were out there heard us and started
to head back, but it took a while for the others to realize. The tiger shark
had started to head over to where Zach and Hailey were when everyone started to
head back in. Afterwards I found out that Russ knocked Nora’s snorkel out which
delayed them, and left her in the dust; for Zach and Hailey, Zach was constantly
checking on Hailey because she wanted to look at the shark!!! Eventually everyone
was back on shore and we just watched as the thing swam a little ways away and then
disappear. It was terrifying. I wasn’t even in the water, and I was freaking
out. We almost went through with doing the lab once the shark was gone, and a
few of the others swam out. However, a good group of us (me included) refused
to get back in and eventually Trish was like, “Nope, we aren’t doing that again.”
She has a history with tiger sharks, so she was wary of it.
This was a blessing in disguise, since we were able to get
back in time for tea time and grab chocolate coconut muffins before getting an
impromptu-ish lecture on what is threatening coral. We have to do a video about
it for our final project besides the group project, so it was nice to get a bit
more information on it. Sorry I led you astray Mom, it is not about our
experiences… Whoops. I’ll still have loads of videos and pictures to show.
Lunch was nice too, though it wasn’t my favorite texture. I didn’t eat much of
it anyway since I was super full.
After lunch we went to the Blue Pools and Heron’s Bommie for
our last scheduled outer reef excursion. It was even better than yesterdays! I
saw so many fish and got a fair amount of good footage, though it was still
shaky. At Heron’s Bommie, we saw a lot of turtles (the others saw a huge
loggerhead, but I once again missed it), one shark (that freaked me out because
of the shark this morning) and one eagle ray that I at first mistook for a manta
ray because of how huge it was. I got out of the water before everyone else, though,
because my nerves were a bit frazzled. There was a fair amount of wind today
that kept on dumping water in my snorkel so I would choke and panic. Almost had
an anxiety attack when I saw the shark, but thankfully, I was able to leave the
water soon after so I was okay. I was shivering the whole way home too, and not
just from the cold (it’s been pretty chilly all day, everyone is in their
warmest clothes and we’re all still cold).
Once we were back we worked on our pre-proposals for out
group research projects. Nora, Brynn and I already had our stuff more or less
planned out. We were able to get it approved so we’ll be working on that
tomorrow. One beautiful sunset later, and an hour to spare, we had a wonderful
dinner with this tomato chicken dish. It was so good!!!! Everyone went back for
seconds, and some of us (not me, I was stuffed) went back for thirds. There was
also this vegetable couscous which was good as well as a spinach salad.
Overall, there were a lot of ups and downs today. We’re all pretty tired here.
Edd says this is when everyone starts to deflate and get exhausted more easily.
It’s weird to think that we’ve already been here for roughly a week, and we’re
leaving on Sunday! It’s just so strange to think about.
Well, I think that’s all for tonight. I have to edit this
blog post so I can submit it on the watsatheron website for my assignment. That’s
going to be fun. I just have to cut out a lot of the details about the shark so
Edd and Trish don’t get in any serious trouble. This is the first tiger shark
on one of these things ever… so I better down play it just in case.
Later!
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