As soon as the clock struck midnight, today became one of the most eventful days of the trip. The girls’ dormitory was awoken by the discovery of “maggots” in one of the beds. Dozens of small, white worms crawled under one of the girls’ sleeping bag and pillow, and the fear of more kept us all tossing and turning throughout the night.
Despite the bug scare cutting into our sleep (workers came in early in the morning and confirmed that the bugs were actually termites), the sun came out in the morning and energized us for a full day of snorkeling, fishing, and learning. It was definitely the hottest day to date; by 9am, we were all lounging on the beach and sweating buckets.
For our first snorkel of the day, we went back to the fore reef. The sun was out and the water was relatively still, making it easy to see everything that was underwater. We saw a nurse shark sleeping under coral, lion fish hiding in crevices, three schools of squid, and some rather large porcupine fish.
After lunch, we hopped on the boats once again, this time headed to a patch reef known as “the aquarium” due to its abundance of fish. This time, we were doing two different things. Half of our group continued the coral watch survey that we started yesterday, while the other half started an experiment on Damselfish species. We are observing the behavior of different species of Damselfish within the reefs to determine whether they are generalists, and inhabit different coral types, or specialists, and inhabit specific coral types. Both of these studies will be continued tomorrow at our last snorkeling site.
An optional fishing expedition was a whopping success in the late afternoon. We reeled in 
numerous grunts and snappers, while watching the sunset over the mountains on the mainland. A highlight of the trip was when Sophie, after an hour of catching nothing, caught a southern sting ray. Frigatebirds hovered over our boat the whole time, getting closer and closer in hopes of catching a fish getting tossed out of the boat. We made it back in time for dinner, sharing stories of our fishing trip with those that stayed behind to relax and enjoy the island.
After dinner we sat around the fire listening to Richard, the island’s IZE manager, share stories of growing up in Belize and witnessing changes in policy and environmental protection on the islands. He explained his job and the challenges he faces to run a sustainable operation on such a remote island, including salt corrosion, septic tank limitations, and transportation of supplies on and off the island. Despite these challenges, Richard has also had successes. The island is currently run on 90% solar power, and he has plans to extend it to 100% renewable energy with the addition of a wind turbine in the near future.
Before going to bed, many of us took advantage of the clear skies to go stargazing on the dock. We could see Orion’s belt, Taurus, and Cassiopeia in the distance, as well as Jupiter and lots of shooting stars. We also spotted an eagle ray and a few seahorses in the water below us.
One more day at South Water Caye, and two more days in Belize! Can’t wait to be home, but sad to leave the warm weather and this tropical paradise!
Janice and Sophie