Today was our last day at the Gerace Research Center :( Our flight was not till 5 pm so we decided to make the most out of the day. We got up bright and early and had breakfast, and then got all our snorkeling stuff ready to walk to Graham’s Harbor (our first snorkeling spot of the trip). The whole trip we have all wanted to see turtles, so our one goal was to see some at Graham’s Harbor since there are grass beds there that turtles like to hangout in. We decided to walk on the beach to get there which was more of a hike rather than a nice stroll on the beach due to a lot of rocks on the shore. Once we arrived, we put on our snorkel gear, got with our snorkeling buddy, and dove right in.
The water was pretty cold at first, but I soon got adjusted. We tried our best not to disturb the bottom to try to keep visibility clear and increase the chances of seeing a turtle. There was a part of the pier that was sunken into the water that has coral growing on it and lots of fish. I saw much bigger fish than I have seen most of this trip and lots of different types. We didn’t have any luck seeing turtles at the pier, so we decided to venture out a bit more. We went all the way down the North Point which we had walked before snorkeling in the beginning of the trip. We saw starfish, lots of anemones, and I think a few people saw a jellyfish. After swimming pretty far away from the shore, we finally gave up on trying to find the turtles. We all made the long haul back to the shore, but we did get to see a patch reef that I had no idea was there until the swim back. It had a lot of bigger coral and so many types of fish. I wished I was able to look at it longer.
We all got out stuff together and were still happy with the snorkeling despite not seeing any turtles. We then walked back to the research center and began the thing I have been dreading the entire trip- packing. Part of the group took the trash we collected the other day on the beach to the dump and the other half helped clean up the lab. We began packing up all our suitcases and then went back down to the cafeteria for our last meal at Gerace. Let’s just say a lot of us were not a fan of this last meal and are all very excited to go home and get a home-cooked meal. Overall, the weather was great, and it was a good last day at the research center!
This post contributed by Megan L.
Photos contributed by Megan L. and Liz G.
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