Explorer: Day 3 from Ryan and Nate

"This week has been an awesome, fun, and exciting experience. Today was an extremely eventful day; we had a great dive. This was one of the best dives yet. We are definitely looking forward to doing the night dive tonight. It will be one of the five mandatory specialty dives for our Advanced Certification. We’ve already done the Boat Dive, the Deep Dive, and the Naturalist Dive (which was done today). All that is left is the Navigation Dive and the Night Dive which should be an amazing experience tonight. As well as doing our Night Dive tonight at Whale Bone Bay, we will be having a cozy bonfire with delicious S'mores. We are all so very excited!

During the dive at the Rita Zavetto today, we did a fish ID survey. This survey consisted of identifying the species of fish and the density of that species in the area. We saw a countless amount of fish including: French Grunts, many Foureye Butterfly, Spanish Hogfish, several kinds Parrot fish, many Blue Tangs, abundant amounts of Blueheads, and a school of Bermuda Chub. We also saw came across some interesting organisms like the squid that followed Nathaniel and I, some aggressive Sergeant Majors that were protecting their eggs, the docile Puddingwife that was letting us touch him (I came face to face with him for a few moments before I got freaked out), and the cautious Honeycomb Cowfish. I also really hope to see some nocturnal marine life during tonight’s night dive.

Towards the end of the day, we watched an excellent movie on plastic. It discussed the nightmarish, yet real, environmental issues relating to synthetic plastic including the North Atlantic gyre which is holding hundreds of tons of plastics. This is a significant problem because aquatic animals are eating plastic. As you may know, plastic contains many harmful chemicals which are absorbed into the bodies of aquatic life when they are broken down. These chemicals are transferred up the food chain, finally ending up in our food. We played a part in this by trailing a floating net behind the boat and collecting any plastics that may have been floating on the surface of the ocean. The information we collected was uploaded into a global database to provide enough evidence to eventually create a lawsuit and stop this worldwide problem."

Explorer: Week 3, Day 2

Daniel McGuire commented on Tuesday's adventures: "We woke up this morning at 7:30 feeling very tired after yesterday’s long day of fun, which included night snorkeling in the evening," adding that, he, "had previously never seen a creature that used bio-luminescence until last night. The females would come up and shine and wait for a male to come and find them. Although we only saw about 3 or 4 it was still an amazing experience for me...

 He continued, "the super awesome highlight of Tuesday's camp was for sure our awesome dive at the Rita Zovetto! Never have I ever fallen so madly in love with scuba diving! The water visibility was amazing! Perhaps as good as 50 feet! We saw this radical school of sergeant majors, living on the wreck, the Rita Zovetto, and making a home for themselves out of the once great ship. It was the best dive I have ever gone on."

Nate and Ryan continued, "Later on in Clarke Lab, we worked on many scientific principles relevant to diving and had to make our own science projects based on them. We were introduced to a few intriguing concepts that we’d learned in school before, but never in depth. These concepts include buoyancy, density, pressure, and displacement. We applied these ideas to scuba diving by constructing individualized projects from the Cartesian Diver to the Depth Gauge to 'Lifting the Titanic.'

They described the Cartesian Diver experiment as, "slightly positively buoyant objects made of tiny paper clips and balloons. These were contained in an enclosed airspace inside a bottle of water which, when squeezed, sank. This was due to the increased pressure of the airspace in the bottle. When increasing the pressure on air, air compresses."

Daniel described the 'Raise the Titanic experiment as, "A man by the name of Archimedes was trying to figure out the volume of a tricky object. He was stumped. So, like most people, he decided to take a bath. As he got in, the water level in the bath raised, he cried out EURIKA! He had discovered water displacement! Conveniently, as well, the measurement system was created to match up with the weight of water, I.E. 1 ml = 1 g. So we figured out that in the everyday occurrence of raising things from the ocean floor. However much the object weighs, we must displace more water than it, so we did experiments involving weights and different objects such as corks and packing peanuts in order to raise the weights."

Bryson Doers offered a different perspective: "There were many different ways to do the Raise the Titanic experiment; one way was to attach packaging peanuts to fish weights using paper clips, but I used Zip-lock bags attached to the Fish weight, connected to two tubes. After that I blew into and that caused the bags to inflate, and lift the weight/Titanic up from the bottom of the tank. The experiment works because the buoyancy of the air is greater than the weight of the fish weight and causes the fish weight to raise."

Explorer: Week 3, Day 1

Monday marked the first week of Advanced Waterstart Scuba sleep-away camps. Part of the camp includes personal reflection on individual scientific exploration, so we will be getting daily updates from the students themselves.

Here is what campers Ryan Lane and Nathaniel Hartwig had to say about Monday:

"Today, we were filled with excitement. It was the first day of the Advanced Waterstart Scuba Camp at the BIOS. Having been assigned our room in which we will be staying for the next four nights, we headed straight to lunch. Lunch, surprisingly, was absolutely delicious and fueled me for the rest of the day. Later, we took our scuba tanks and BCDs down to the dock and loaded up the boat. Unfortunately, today was an overcast and rainy day. Luckily scuba diving lifted our spirits, and made us forget about the rain.

Although we could only explore the small, shallow area of Whale Bone Bay, we saw several exotic species of marine life. This included three tiny squid, sea anemones, a puffer fish, and a massive brain coral. I also saw a fascinating squirrel fish hiding in the depths of a small cave. 

We didn’t do much science today; however, I do think that throughout the next few days, we will learn a great deal about the scientific ecology and properties of the ocean. We did see a cool experiment preformed by Dready though, where an egg was cracked deep below the surface of the ocean. The egg yolk remained intact, as well as most of the white proteins around it. This demonstrated the great pressures and differing densities that exist at deep depths of the ocean which kept the egg together."

And you can watch this egg experiment right here:

MSI: Gathering Algae and Rescue Skills

This morning, the Marine Science Interns deployed leaf litter bags amongst sea grass and mangrove ecosystems. They will return to these locations in three weeks to gather the leaf litter bags and analyze the decomposition rates in both environments.

After deploying the leaf litter bags, the students continued their 'Rescue Diver' scenarios from yesterday. Liam and John, both already certified Rescue Divers, made excellent rescue dummies as they floated 'lifeless' in the waters just off the BIOS dock. Each cloaked with their own theme-song, the interns came to the aid of their fellow students and are now leaps and bounds closer to certification. By the end of the program, all but one of the interns will be certified PADI Rescue Divers.

 

After lunch, the interns boarded the R/V Henry Stommel to Bailey's Bay, Flatts. There, they laid out six 10 meter transect lines and laid a quadrat at a random point along each line. They then gathered all of the algae within each quadrat and placed their samples into separate bags.

Hard at work in Bermuda lab, the interns have just identified the different species of algae present (including Dictyota, Laurencia intricata, Caulerpa, Halimeda and Dictyasphaeria) and are currently eliminating any calcium carbonate residue within the algae. Once the calcium carbonate is eradicated, the algae samples will be left to dry for 48 hours. The interns will then divide the algae by species once more and calculate the mass of the sample. The goal of this experiment is to calculate the biomass per meter squared.

Tomorrow after work there will be a BBQ for the MSI and Bermuda Programme Interns!

MSI: Updates From The Interns

This morning, just north of Fort St. Katherine, amidst the advance of tropical storm Bret, the MSI interns laid transect lines around which they identified 28 species of fish and 5 of coral. 

Khalil, one of our interns, gathered coral population data just east of the initial dive to use in a presentation assigned by his school. "Today was a day of research for me. We recorded fish and coral number at Fort St. Katherine's. We recorded the number of the five most common coral species and 28 of the most common reef fish species. Today was extremely fun." 

John commented that, "We spent an entire dive scrutinizing fish along the the transect lines we laid. We saw puddingwives, grunts, parrotfish and many more pretty fish. The plethora of colours and shapes of the fish were really cool." 

Liam added, "Our fish survey was very successful. I saw many brilliant specimens, covering a wider spectrum of the fish list than yesterday. The highlight of the dive for me was seeing the largest squirrelfish I have ever seen." 

The interns are are becoming experts at using scientific instruments underwater. Taylor admitted that, "Being our third dive using transects, I felt that I finally got the hang of floating above the coral reef and recording the fish I saw."

MSI: Natural Arches Fish Survey

This morning, the Marine Science Interns demonstrated their commitment to science as they rocked through a thick blanket of rain and waves to Natural Arches. Upon arrival the sun slipped out from under the low-lying, laden clouds to spotlight the surrounding reefs where the interns would be conducting their surveys. The interns recorded the number and species of fish (primarily blue head wrasses, green tangs and queen parrot fishes) present along three 25 meter transect lines laid out across the reef. Andreas Ratteray observed that, “despite the current which made attaining buoyancy difficult, the fish survey ran very smoothly,” and Taylor Schendel remarked similarly that she, “was impressed with how well we all managed to get our surveys done in the weather and small window of time allotted... and singing on the way home made us all forget how cold and rainy it was.”

Currently, the interns are putting together leaf litter traps to deploy tomorrow at various locations in order to study and compare decomposition rates across ecosystems.

Explorer: Week 2, Day 5

Today was a storybook ending to a fabulous week at Waterstart. The students filed in filled with energy, ready to kick off the final day of Week 2. The day began with some students finishing PADI knowledge reviews, quizzes, and the final Open Water exam for those trying for their Open Water certification. They all passed with flying colors, as Jacques, Josh, Kimone, and Kyesja joined Graham on a science trip around BIOS. The four scientists proved Boyle's Law with a number of different experiments in Ferry Reach, and got some great pictures for Dean to use in this year's Explorer videos.

 

After all the hard work was completed, the students loaded up on Polaris for the day's dives. Upon leaving Ferry Reach, Polaris met some choppy waters that tested the students' balance, but nobody got left behind. Calmer waters were soon found by Captains JP and Dready, and the campers set anchor near Watch Hill Park, adjacent to a beautiful reef. First in the water were Jacques and Josh as they attempted to finish up their Advanced Open Water certifications with Divemasters Dready and Graham. They went on a brilliant dive to 51 feet, identified beautiful marine life, and exhibited textbook diving technique. During their dive, the other campers completed a fish ID survey on the reef. For many students, this was the highlight of their day!

Following the Advanced divers were Kenyu, Kobe and Tyler all attempting to finish up their SCUBA Diver certification. According to JP and Dready, they all dove beautifully and enjoyed the breathtaking reef. Finally Emily, Gigi, Jojo, Dylan and Dan hopped in the water to complete their Open Water 4 dive. They removed and replaced not only their weight belts, but also their entire BCDs en route to receiving their full Open Water certification.

All the campers played in an intense game of Shark Tail on the BIOS football field to close out a wonderful week, and after receiving their certificates they left Clark Lab with a smile.

MSI: Mangrove Mazes in Hungry Bay

Today, the MSI interns laid 10x10 meter quadrants in three different locations around Hungry Bay and deployed six leaf-litter traps in each quadrant with the assistance of Dr. Robbie Smith. Within all three quadrants, they tagged, located and measured the diameter of each red or black mangrove tree, collecting data that will be incorporated into a project supported by the Bermuda Natural Museum and Zoo.

Weaving through a web of mangroves, the interns witnessed first-hand the effects of rising sea levels on mangroves and the devastation these effects engender, affecting surrounding aquatic and terrestrial life.


One of the interns, Khalil, remarked that, "today was a wonderful day full of muddy magic, nearly lost shoes, and bugs - lots and lots of bugs. We went hiking today through the mangrove forests at Hungry Bay. It was a fun walk, but I'll need to take a very long shower after this."

Liam's, "favorite part of the day was when, in between recording data and setting leaf litter traps at the different sites, we found ourselves up to our shoulders (or farther) in streams which were woven into the swamp."

Taylor, another intern, said that, "today was truly a new experience for me. I have gone on hikes before, but never ones that involved swimming, hiking through the mud, and even doing some science at the same time."

Explorer: Week 2, Day 4

As JP said, today was a "marathon of diving." We started off the day with a quick circle time during which we learned that the students really enjoyed yesterday's kayak trips, and diving in Whale Bone Bay. Knowing that we would were headed to a beautiful shipwreck today, they were very excited for what today day had to offer as well.

After mooring up with the MSI boat at the Pelinaion, Jacques C. and Josh S. hopped in the water with the MSI students, Graham, Dready and Dean to do an Adventure Deep Dive. They descended to 64 feet, and showed extreme maturity and control throughout the entire course of the dive. The two Waterstart students played with 'the egg' at depth (see The Egg YouTube video), and saw how a bag that was red at the surface appeared black at depth. After a 3 minute safety stop at 15 feet on top of the wreck, the students all surfaced for a brief surface interval.

Next on the agenda was an Adventure Wreck Dive, also on the Pelinaion. On the deep dive, Dready spotted a massive lion fish that he wanted to spear so he led the group of students down to the reef invader. With great aim and preparation, Dready successfully speared the lion fish and secured himself a delicious dinner for tonight...I mean he secured BIOS a fascinating organism to study. Because of residual nitrogen levels, the wreck dive was relatively short but was very entertaining and fun. After another 3 minute safety stop, the group ascended and headed back to Polaris.

While Jacques and Josh were diving, the rest of the group participated in a REEF Fish Survey off of Charles Island. According to Gigi C. "It was awesome and we got to see so many amazing fish!" Emily and Dylan also noted that they had a great time participating in the survey. After completing the surveys, they joined up with the rest of the group at the Pelinaion to swap some gear for an afternoon of diving.
 
Next in the water were Emily, Dylan, Jojo, Gigi and Daniel for Open Water dive 3 at the Rita Zavetta. Following the successful completion of a number of surface skills, the lot descended down to the wreck and went on a fun dive with JP and Graham. It proved to be a beautiful dive, and all the divers did a wonderful job.

Finally, Kenyu, Kobe and Tyler entered the water at the Rita Zavetta for their Open Water dive. JP and Graham had an epic battle with a pudding wife in a sand pit. Even though Kobe said the pudding wife won, I think it was a safe draw!

 


With all the dives done, the Waterstart group went back to BIOS to complete some dive book work. Kimone drew a beautiful drawing to submit for the Marine Science Day T-shirt competition, and we all wish her the best of luck!

Day 5 has crept up on us this week, but we're all very excited to end Waterstart week 2 with a bang!

MSI: Coral Surveys

Here is a Marine Science Internship update from Khalil:

“Today, July 14^th, we went to the Pelinaion and did three dives. One deep, one wreck and one science dive. The science dive was the most interesting to me because we counted the number of the five major coral on the reef (Diploria strigosa, Diploria labyrinthiformis, Montastrea cavernosa, Montastrea franskii, Porites asteroides and Gorgonia ventalina) and I got to wrap my mind around the vast number of coral on the reef.”

During the Science dive near the Pelinaion wreck, the interns laid three 25 meter transect lines and surveyed the varied coral species one meter on either side of the line. The data that they collected is shown in the graph below:

MSI: Mapping Walsingham Caves

Just off the causeway, traveling away from St. Davids, the MSI program followed Robert Chandler down a beaten path through the caves of Walsingham. This morning the interns were assigned the task of mapping out Subway cave, one of many caves in the area. Armed with transect tape, a GPS device, an inclinometer, headlamps, sketch pads and compasses, the interns laid out transect lines through the three chambers of Subway cave and proceeded to record measurements and observations that will help them recreate the cave in the Bermuda Laboratory later this week.

Six headlights, settled upon the interns' inquisitive brows, made their way through the depths of darkness only a cave can supply, illuminating century old stalactites and stalagmites that cast shadows on the cavern walls. Measurements were taken by headlamp light. John recounted that he, "enjoyed drawing profiles of the cave entrances and the third chamber. I found this very fun and I look forward to doing a full diagram of the cave on all of its axises when we have gathered all the information in order to create a 3D diagram of the Subway cave.” Sketches by Kori and John were made to fill in what could not be expressed by mere measurements.

Once the mapping of Subway cave was complete, Mr. Chandler led the interns on a tour around the area. Kori especially enjoyed hiking on the Walsingham nature reserve. Taylor, an intern from the States, recounted that “Today I got to explore the natural world of Bermuda for the first time. I also learned a lot about the various botanical species that live around the Walsingham caves from Mr. Chandler.”

 As the day was coming to an end Andreas remarked that, “It was wonderful to explore one of the most densely cavernous places in the world.”

Explorer: Week 2, Day 3

From the beginning of recorded history, there was a man roaming the earth. Some say he had long hair. Others claim they've seen him with dreadlocks. But today, as we celebrate his 2000th birthday (give or take 3 years), Dready parties the only way he knows how...with Waterstart.

To kick off Dready's birthday celebration, the campers congratulated him on the successful passing of his PADI Divemaster. Although he had to spend many long hours laboring over the difference between a J Valve and K Valve (among other 'very important' facts), the hard work paid off as Dready became part of the illustrious Professional Diver crew.

Then, it was time for a little entertainment. Two students going for their Advanced Open Water certification, Jacques and Josh, took to the football field with Graham to walk around with buckets on their heads as they learned how to use a compass (and make Dready laugh). Sadly for Dready, Jacques and Josh did quite well and were ready to take the next step to navigating in the water.

The other students continued their PADI bookwork, learning more about no decompression diving, dive tables, and the effects water has on an individual's senses. After completing some Knowledge Reviews, the students took to Polaris as Dready guided them out to the magnificent Whalebone Bay.

The students were split up into three groups, and each would have a turn in the water with JP and kayaking with Graham. The kayak tours were a bit bumpy, but students seemed to really enjoy themselves. Gigi C. was heard saying "I am having SO much fun right now. Like you can't even imagine how much I'm enjoying this." Although her kayak mate Jojo M. was a bit annoyed with Gigi's constant singing of Finding Nemo tunes, she agreed. Kit Kat M. had a stellar time pulling Jacques C. for much of the kayak journey (he was 'tired'), and the duo of Dylan L. and Dan M. flew through the water. According to JP, all the students participating in SCUBA continued to refine their skills well and many are well on their way to the next PADI certification.

Tomorrow promises to bring more smiles as Waterstart teams up with MSI offshore for a deep dive (for advanced students), and the students continue to learn about the world that surrounds them.

Explorer: Week 2, Day 2

"On the wonderful second day of Waterstart, we started off with some dive book work. One group learned the basics of scuba diving with Dready, while the others learned about diving related injuries such as DCI, Nitrogen Narcosis, Oxygen Toxicity, and Air Contamination with Graham. The students with Graham learned that although these injuries are uncommon if proper tables are adhered to, it's important to know what the various injuries are and how to prevent them. After that, they learned about the RDP and went through a number of practice problems in preparation for their PADI Open Water Final Exam on Thursday. Two lucky students who aren't diving this week got the opportunity to learn about plastics with JP, and would later lead a plastics transect on the beach.

The students did a great job in the classroom all morning, and were eager to suit up and head out to Cooper's Island. 4 beginner students first took to the water with JP and were able to have their first breaths underwater. Kimone noted that "SCUBA diving is AWESOME!"

During a plastics transect on the beach led by Kit Kat and Kyesja, students found a ton of plastics due to the prevailing winds over the past few days. As Dylan noted, "we picked up a toilet seat!" and we found many other large pieces of plastic as well.

Many other students were able to get into the water for a SCUBA review with Dready and Graham. Everybody did a great job, and seemed extremely comfortable in the water. We're all looking forward to continuing with the diving and exploring over the rest of the week!"
- Graham Peigh

MSI: Final Warwick Dive

Elena Strong, curator of the National Museum of Bermuda, returned to BIOS this morning to lead the Marine Science Interns on a final visit out to the Warwick wreck in Castle Harbor.

The NMB has incorporated the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences' Ocean Academy, which includes Waterstart and MSI programs, as an educational outreach component of the Warwick wreck excavation. Footage taken from our visits to the wreck and discussions with scientists on site will be used to create educational videos that will hopefully be shared with students who are not able to physically participate in BIOS Ocean Academy programs.

Today, as with prior visits, the archaeologists working on site discussed with students the history of the Warwick, findings of their excavation (including physical artifacts) and what the scientists working just below the surface we sat on were doing at that particular moment. After sharing sufficient back-history of the wreck, the interns suited up their scuba gear and descended down to the excavation site, side by side with archaeologists meticulously recording the planking of the Warwick, to collect sediment samples.

Amidst the wreckage and recording, 35 feet under water, the interns took three core samples of sediment. One of the samples will be sent to Battele in the United States to be analyzed for organic matter while the other two will remain at the Biological Station to be studied further by the interns in the coming weeks. While collecting sediment, Taylor, one of the interns, pointed out that they, "also got to watch the archeologists take data, which was really cool because they (the archaeologists) were working underwater.”

So much of what scientists learn from wrecks comes from studying the way in which the ship was originally built. It is nearly impossible, quite dangerous and rather impractical for archeologists to remove the entire wreck from the ocean and reconstruct it in the lab, so archaeologists use drawings and measurements to construct the ship electronically. Artifacts that are too big to be taken back to the lab and examined are meticulously drawn and recorded.

Today, the archaeologists were recording the Warwick's planking. Every ten centimeters they recorded the width and length of a plank so that they could later plot the points marked with a computer program to determine the size of the planks and map the ship out electronically. Although a lot of mapping is now done with computers, human sketches are still necessary in order to map out the location of treenails and other distinctive features. Each archaeologist has a different style of recording, some sketch more than they measure and vice-versa. It is the incorporation of both types of recording that will create a visual of the Warwick to study later in the lab.

The scientists and archeologists that have been working on recording the Warwick will be re-covering the wreck sometime next week with oxygen deficient sediment to prevent further decomposition, so today was our last trip out to the wreck this summer.


Marine Science interns John Russell and Liam Nash take a break from collecting sediment samples at the Warwick to deliver a special message to our blog viewers!

Welcome Marine Science Interns and Waterstart Week 2 campers

Today we welcomed the second week of Waterstart summer campers and the first ever Marine Science interns to the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences. Although they are two separate programs, the Marine Science Interns and Waterstart students traveled together today on their summer 2011 maiden voyage into the waters of scientific discovery.

Waterstart

Graham Peigh, one of our staff members involved in the Waterstart program, recounted that, "Today we started the morning with the typical check in and ice breaker games during which we learned that a number of the students go to school in England and the states. This week we have a number of returning students. We hopped in the water for our swim test, but the current was too strong for the float test in the Reach. So we loaded up the boat for Cooper's Island. Everybody got into the water, and we saw a ton of species including Queen Parrotfish, Blue Angel Fish, Stoplight Parrotfish, Squirrelfish, Spanish Hogfish, Sargent Majors, Pompanos, and Breams. During the snorkel, the kids learned about the different types of parrotfish. After that we went to the Pelinaion wreck and snorkeled there. Dready and I snuck down for a quick (failed) attempt at the balloon experiment (a physics module that demonstrates expansion of air under varying pressures)."

MSI

The 6 Marine Science interns, who will be with us for the next 3 weeks, also visited both Cooper's Island and the Pelinaion wreck, however, as experienced scuba divers (all but one are Waterstart graduates), they were able dive down into the wreck and explore the Cooper's Island reef more thoroughly. The interns saw various species of coral and aquatic life that they learned to identify in Bermuda Laboratory that morning before hopping on the boat. In the next week, the interns will be visiting and collecting sediment from the Warwick wreck, mapping a cave, studying mangroves, and learning to identify 13 species of coral. Two of the interns will become advanced divers while two others will be working towards their Rescue Diver certification and the rest will be accumulating scientific dives for Science Diver certification.


Khalil, one of the marine science interns, is really looking forward to "exploring the Warwick wreck tomorrow." It will be a long, science- filled week that will prepare the interns for and hopefully, inspire them to pursue, a future full of scientific exploration.

Explorer: Week 1 Graduates

Yesterday wrapped up the first week of Waterstart summer camps, 2011. Whether it was mastering a snorkel, breathing under water for the first time or becoming an advanced scuba diver, each one of the students took significant strides in ocean exploration.

The students gained invaluable experiences throughout the week- learning from scientists, archeologists, dive masters and, most of all, each other. We wanted to congratulate Paul DeSheild, Bethsheba Jones, Jordan Smith, Olivia Zen-Alous, Anna Cutler, Kathy Hui, Lauren Allen, Aiden Young, Chris Doherty, Calum Maule and Jamison Percy for completing the Waterstart program.

A special congratulations goes out to Paul from Bermuda Institute, Beth from Dellwood Middle School, Jordan from TN Tatem, and Olivia from BHS who were chosen by their respective schools to receive a scholarship to attend the Waterstart program.

We would also really like to thank Paul who took all the wonderful pictures used this week.

Explorer: Week 1, Day 3

Here are words from one of our students, Beth!

"Today, I went snorkeling and saw an array of different animals, such as comb jellies, soft shell crabs and much more at Castle Harbor. Before that, I was snorkeling upon a shipwreck (the Warwick wreck) that wrecked in 1619 after the Sea Venture that carried the very first colonists. We stayed at the wreck and took part in three different activities. I learned all about the wreck and saw some artifacts like cannonballs. My favorite part of the day was snorkeling with the comb jellies."

At the Warwick wreck we had the chance to learn about the history of the wreck and observe the archeologists use mylar to map the wooden planking on the boat after these artifacts were recovered. We snorkeled over surveyors who spent hours under water, meticulously mapping the wreck recording any treenails or distinct characteristics and taking dimensions of every nook and cranny.

Jamison, another student, had a great time on the boat ride back to the station where, "we learned a bunch of new games like thumper and mafia!" While another student, Calum, completed his navigation dive and is on his way to advanced certification!

We will be returning to the Warwick next week with MSI students and hopefully, technology willing, we'll have some video clips to share.