Bermuda Day 6 - July 11th

By Lucy and Leo

We started the day off with a plant walk along some of the nicest beaches in Bermuda. In addition to Bermuda’s endemic trees, such as the Bermuda Cedar, Palmetto, and Olive Wood, there are a lot of other native plants, introduced plants, and invasive ones. Along the dunes, we saw a lot of morning glory and grass. We went into a secluded cove, where we identified Australian Whistling Pine, Pacific Lobelia, Spanish Bayonet, Tassel Plant, Bay Grape, Fennel, West Indian Grass, and Prickly Pear. After it got too hot to stand in the sun, we swam in the water! There were many dark and light spots in the water, the dark turned out to be fish, and the light spots surrounded the people swimming as the fish avoided them! Rocks protected the inner swimming area, but we swam out towards the more open water and pretended to surf on an exposed rock. After climbing the trails around the area for a little while, we headed off to our next data site!  

 Warwick bay , Spanish point, whale bone bay - Leo Trevits

Our first snorkel started out at Warwick Bay after our plant walk. The beach was nice and sandy with boilers not too far off shore. The water was pretty rough, especially around the boilers so we only stayed in the water for around a half hour, but we ended up seeing some interesting fish. The most interesting finds were a huge Rainbow Parrotfish, and a Spotted Trunkfish floating around in the rough current. It was a short but interesting snorkel! 

The next place we snorkeled was at Spanish point, though before getting there we went on an unexpected hike after going to the wrong spot by accident. Once we got there we were met with an interesting snorkel. The spot seemed to be popular among locals and tourists and The seashore was rocky, while the water was quite shallow. There were quite large soft corals with many little fish swimming around them, though the water was quite murky we were still able to see multiple types of Wrasse, Damsel fish, and many others. 

The last swim of the day was our second night snorkel at Whalebone Bay. We got there just as the sun set at 8:30 and got geared up, not knowing what an eventful swim it would turn out to be. When we got in the water we started up the shoreline and were met with many of the fish we see hiding out during the day, including Grunts and Squirrelfish. As we continued we ended up seeing a handful of spiny lobster, some quite large in size, a barracuda, an octopus and a whole load of needle fish, who took quite the liking to our lights as they would jump out of the water and swim right up to us, some even hitting us. It will definitely be a snorkel that is remembered for a long time.