At first I didn’t really know how to snorkel and then my mom showed me how to breath through my mouth and not through my nose.  When you’re snorkelling you don’t breath through your nose because there’s a mask over it.  There’s a tube that goes from your mouth to the surface so you can breath through  your mouth when your face is under water.  I wanted to learn how to snorkel so I could see what was under the water.  When I got in the water and got used to breathing through my mouth there was a whole other world under there!

The first time I snorkelled we saw a sea cucumber, lots and lots of fish, really pretty shells, and on the way back I saw a huge ray.  The second time we explored along the water pipe (parent edit: for the island desalination plant) and there was coral and lots of sea urchins growing on it.  We saw a lionfish and lots of tiger fish buried in the sand.  Lionfish have poisonous spines on their back and they look like lions because of the spines that look like a lion’s mane.  They are an invasive species but not aggressive to humans.  They came from a different area and liked it better here since they don’t have any predators.

One time we snorkelled along a big wall with big shelves made out of rock.  We saw lots of schools of fish.  We looked up the hill and saw so many goats up the hill right by the water.  We saw an eel with black and bright yellow stripes on it.  It was kind of scary.  We saw a lot of sea urchins with really long spines.  When it’s deep I feel a little more comfortable around sea urchins, but when it’s shallow not so much because right now I’m snorkelling without a life jacket on. I was afraid I would go too deep and touch them.

So far the best time snorkelling was with mom in the water at Crocus Bay.  We saw huge sea cucumbers, two lionfish, big and little sea urchins, and we found a reef with lots of fish and fire coral.  Near the end we saw a turtle and when we got close it went up to the surface to breath.  We went up as well and saw its head poke up above the water.

We made hand signals and actions to use for the creatures that we see so we can talk to each other under water.  Two fingers bent is lobster.  Hands together wiggling is fish.  One hand wiggling is eel.  Butterfly hand is a ray.  Hands stacked with thumbs wiggling is a turtle.  Hands wiggling in front of your mouth is an urchin.  When we dive to try and touch the bottom when there’s no coral or anything we have a diving signal.  You make your hand dive under water.  It’s pretty hard to touch the bottom because your head feels like the water pressure is on it.

We were going to check the anchor when we got to Rendevous Bay and we got carried away by a sea turtle and lots and lots of lobster.  We decided to follow them and we probably saw 23 or 24 lobsters.  They have really long antennae and they’re tucked in behind things on the bottom.  Some of them are small and some of them are medium and some looked very tasty.  I wish we had a spear.  Lobster tail is the best part. 

I love snorkelling now because it’s really awesome to see all the wildlife under the water.It’s the best, I hope you try it and see a sea turtle!