Best Club Ever.

Yesterday was the Underwater Explorer's Club's first underwater exploration. It was pretty awesome. Stace and I are the leaders of the club and our objective is to visit different reefs around the BVI and chart the number of species found at each reef. We will visit each reef at least twice, then compile our data into an informational pamphlet about where to see which species in the waters around Tortola.

Some snorkeling fiends.

Thrashing out to deeper water.

We gave each group of two kids a waterproof ID guide and an underwater slate\pencil for recording what they saw.

Our first trip took us to Brewer's Bay. We geared up, went over some safety information, took a head count, told them not to smash any coral or pick up any poisonous creatures, and headed out.

For the next hour and twenty minutes, the only sound you heard were kids yelling through a snorkel, trying to get the attention of their group members to look at some creature, identify it, and record it. They were so into it.

They've spotted something cool. Muffled screams ensue as they try to make an ID.

Indecipherable chicken scratch is scrawled onto the slate for Stace and I to figure out later.

A male Stoplight Parrotfish.

Blue Tang

French Grunts avoiding predators by nestling into some coral.

Big Yellow Tail Snapper

Male and two Female Stoplight Parrotfish

Blue-Headed Wrass

Stoplight lunchin'

The highlight of the exploration was an enormous rock lobster. The pictures do not do it justice, but this thing was huge. The thing was at least 30inches long. It's body was the diameter of a dinner plate and it's legs were the size of snow crab legs. The antennae were at least 2 ft long and thicker than my thumb. I think anyone who tried to grab this thing for dinner would have easily taken on more than they could handle. It was fearsome.

If only I could have convinced a 6th grader to get next to this thing, then you would have an idea as to how ridiculously huge it is.

That fan coral getting trampled is at least as big as an NBA basketball.

We eventually herded all of the kids back to shore, took another head count to make sure we didn't lose any of them, and dismissed the club. We're working on a secret handshake which should be ready before we snorkel on a wrecked barge in Cane Garden Bay next week.

KB caught in the headlights.

KB ascending from a great depth.