Day 8 Night Snorkel

Tonight I went on my first night snorkel, and I was scared to death!  I thought I was going to get lost, and I could not see anyone in  the water, just their lights.  I was also afraid of running into the coral.  It was not really as hard as I had expected.  We saw quite a few things in the night water.  We saw:

• lobsters
• crab
• spotted moray
• donkey dung (sea cucumber)
• squid
• squirrel fish
• sleeping parrot
• four eye butterfly
• blue stripe grunt (1)
• porcupine fish

I also held an octopus for the first time!!  Ryan saw it then Jeff dove down and scooped it up.  George was really excited to see the octopus, so he held it first.  Then George gave it to me to hold.  Once it was in my hand, it was not hard to keep it there.  I didn't want to be an octopus hog so I gave it to Lynn next.  George held it with him the rest of the snorkel.  We also got to play with the porcupine fish.  It puffed up and looked llike a dog's chew toy.  We kept bouncing it in the water.  Maureen found what is called a string of pearls.  They are invertibrates, ostracods, tiny crustaceans the size of a tomato seed that secrete a chemical mucus that resembels a string of pearls.  The females use the pearls to find their mate.  The string of pearls biolumenesce in the dark.  We all turned off our flashlights and you could see the whole reef light up from these pearls.  It was amazing!  Ken said he had never seen this many at one time lighting up.