Night Swim

July 6th

         As the last of the daylight started to fade, our entire group prepared ourselves for our first night snorkel. One by one we each sat down in the water, each shocked at how cool it had become. However, that didn't phase me for too long because I was so excited to see the changes night brought to ocean life. Sophia and I both let out a little squeal as we saw our fist fish, neither of us had done anything like this before. It swam out of our field of vision too quickly to identify, but just seeing it made us both become more intrigued. We swam over to the coral hoping for a little more excitement. On the way I couldn't help but satisfy my curiosity, and I reached down to touch a nearby starfish. It was so much squishier than they were during the day, (making themselves more stiff during the day probably helps defend from enemies), and I quickly urged Sophia to touch the starfish too.  (Now starfish are my new underwater obsession.)  During our swim some other highlights were that we saw  a  Squirrelfish, Holocentrus adsensionis, which is a beautiful fish with red and white scales, and huge eyes that glimmer in the light, as well as a scorpion fish which perfectly blended in with the rubbish underneath the dock. The night swim was super cool and I can't wait to do it again.