It's like a sea cucumber minefield...

Best way to start a morning on LEI: sprint around the airstrip and then watch the sunrise. Can't get much better than that.

Shortly after breakfast Jayna had us scheduled for a reef walk. In short, this is a hike through the reef flat maze that we snorkeled in yesterday. Rather than a maze, it was a minefield dotted with sea cucumber and razor sharp coral just dying to slice into all intruder's flesh. Sound cozy, right? Further evidence that Australia likes to kill people.

Mere minutes into the entire affair, the rain started to pour. It was so laughably cold and miserable. I think Carnarvon's hatred has followed me here. However, during the bizarre storm, a gorgeous double rainbow was visible just to the south of us. Perhaps it's a promise that the weather will improve? I think I'm asking too much.

We saw the usual reef flat residents including deep blue starfish, clams that were the color of the brightest peacocks, more sea cucumbers, and coral with blue pigments to protect them from the sun.

Someone in our group managed to find a hermit crab... a big one. It was interesting the way he behaved. He would steadily creep out of his shell and when he got mildly frightened, quickly retract back in. When you're holding this the feeling is quite similar to the kickback a gun offers. He was such a cute little bugger: bright vibrant red with white spots and furry little legs. Definitely not the typical hermit crab most people picture in their mind when you mention the animal.

Walking all the way to the reef rubble, we continued our trek towards the island again. We encountered a red-eye crab which are quite territorial I have discovered. Lipscomb (our animal snatcher) promptly scooped him up for everyone to see. He's the same one that managed to capture our crawdad in Binna Burra.

On the beach we found two dead crabs which had been completely eaten aside from their hard chitinous shell. Gross, but really quite lovely.

Mandy and I made an attempt to hop on board with the 10:45 boat snorkel but no luck so we waited until the 11:45. It was an absolute blessing. The most torturous part of the entire affair was the trailer ride out to the coral gardens where we waded through the coral rubble to the topsy-turvy glass bottom boat.

The boat ride was short but similar to riding a roller coaster. Although, despite the gentle rise and fall of the very large waves, it was much more gentle than I remember from last year. Nearly immediately after we ventured past the buoy, we spotted a manta ray feeding on the surface. Then we saw another and another.. and another. Throwing ourselves out onto the platforms we all literally jumped ship into the water. Cold, but finally the wind stopped. I'd forgotten how incredible this experience can be. One manta ray after another drifted our way, probably totaling in the neighborhood of about ten mantas. We had a few of the “normal” grey and white ones, a black one, and another unique bugger without a tail. In between the mantas gliding by, we spotted a small white tipped reef shark patrolling the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately my camera wasn't quite ready and I didn't get a picture. 

There was very little scanning time spent in the water since nearly right after the mantas seemed to have passed a green sea turtle came to play. Like the one yesterday, this little guy was the complete opposite of shy, coming incredibly close and acting as if he enjoyed the shell scratches he nearly consistently received. I even dove down and was able to get a snapshot very close.. sans zoom. I love this place.

Reaching the reef closer to the beach, I dove down countless times to get up close and personal (very personal) with colorful parrotfish, rabbitfish, damselfish, Moorish idols, and plenty more sea cucumber. The picture is of a parrotfish. I find myself so frustrated with the lighting though, the fish are the most spectacular colors and my camera can't seem to handle the array of pigments.

As if we hadn't seen enough, on our way back in we saw an absolutely massive loggerhead turtle in the shallows. I'm talking a meter long. BIG ONE.

A short break later for lunch and I was back at it for a lecture on the ghost crab collection and GBR management. Dinner and then back out again.. this time on the beach doing ghost crab collection.

Blacksburg, VA has wind advisories and these mean business. LEI is no different. It was comically ridiculous, each group battling both wind a rain to count crab burrows and measure distances while their measuring tape flew uncontrollably in the wind. Once the rains started, keeping their data sheets dry was a near impossible task, and I have a lot of sheets that look incredibly akin homemade paper.

Once students actually found some of the little crabs, the activity got a lot more fun. Some even went so far as to dig up the little buggers, grabbing them and often getting pinched in the process. And this is my job.

I love my job.