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During our first day of SCUBA diving, Weston and I, Lizzie, were the two Caciques. Having opposite amounts of experience, I was extremely nervous, whereas Weston was eager to jump in. The first dive did not sit well with me. I hopped out of the water and went to lunch, but could not stop thinking about my second dive in only forty-five minutes. When I reached the bottom of my second dive, my fears suddenly melted away as I explored the beautiful, Bahamian scenery. Although my SCUBA diving experience got off to a rocky start, I couldn’t help but love the beautiful scenery 25 feet below the surface.

My name is Weston Albury and I was one of the Caciques yesterday and Wednesday night. I was chosen by Tommy and Larissa for my amazing energy and uplifting attitude. As part of the SCUBA program for the first week we had a really fun couple of days. I was part of team barracuda and we had a really fun time. On the first day we did a confined water dive off the dock. After lunch we went on our first open water dive to a place called the saddle. This is the name of the dive site because the bottom is in the shape of a saddle. I loved diving in the saddle because there were these really cool walls that went up the sides of the saddle that had some juvenile fairy basslets. Today I will be SCUBA certified and can go diving with anyone!

Kayak Caciques Silas and Aiko!

While on the K1 trip we stopped and learned about mangrove trees. We learned that mangroves are lot different than other trees in the way that they can grow in salt water. Our favorite thing that we did on the trip was when we stopped and helped the CEI researchers catch, tag, and measure a bunch of little lemon and black tipped sharks. We helped rush the sharks into a seine net. This really made us think that it would be awesome to intern here one day. We are also very much looking forward to the road trip that we are going to take to explore the southern part of the island. It should be an awesome experience!