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two green turtles
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date: 8/9/2009
Author:Nick Brennan
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Weather: Rain and wind easing to a mild clear afternoon
Air Temp: 25șC
Wind: North West 20- 25 knots
Water Temperature: 23șC
Water Visibility: 20m
Sea State: Rough as guts
The weather deteriorated during the morning with some nasty, but rather impressive looking storm clouds dumping rain on the island.
The strong North West winds playing havoc with the ocean making conditions too rough for the glass bottom boat on the western side of the island so instead it came inside the lagoon where it was calmer and the snorkeling conditions were very safe. In the lagoon guests saw a beautiful cowrie shell whose shiny surface glimmered through the clear water. They also saw the impressive blue linckia sea star contorting its body in a funny shape to cling onto the reef. At channel one two green turtles gave everybody a great thrill simply by sitting there and allowing everybody to approach extremely close to them. They were having a great old time and were later seen munching on a small oat like aquatic plant called halimeda from between the coral. Guests were rapt to see an anemone fish directly under the boat. It was very shy and hid back inside its anemone with all the excitement.
In the afternoon guests came on the island discovery tour to learn a little bit more about this amazing place. By this time the weather was clearing up and the wind had dropped back to less than 5 knots so it was wonderful and pleasant. The group was lucky to see one of the first Ruddy Turnstones for the season. These birds migrate all the way from Siberia each year and come only for a good feed! That is an amazing journey to avoid the harsh Siberian winter!
At fish feeding everybody was interested in the goby fish. These fish often live in the holes dug by shrimp. As the guide was explaining this one guest discovered a tiny bulldozer shrimp digging a hole on the edge of the fish pool and low and behold there was a goby sharing! The shrimp actually needs the goby to alert it when there is a predator around on account of the fact that it has very poor eye sight. It is a fascinating little relationship that was great to be able to observe.
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Green turtle- Jess
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