Hello, I am Megan Henderson and I am a junior majoring in biology, hoping to pursue a career in marine biology.

Today, we were fortunate enough to be able to go snorkel with dolphins. First, we separated into two groups and got to meet two of the dolphins personally, and got a kiss. During this interaction, we learned a little bit about the anatomy of a dolphin, how they train the dolphins, and how the dolphins interact with each other. Dolphins are very intelligent, which makes training them a little easier than other animals. They are much like dogs with needing reassurance that what they are doing is right, so after the dolphin did a trick everyone would clap and cheer for him or her (Tank or Bailey) for positive reinforcement. The dolphins are playful, much like dogs, and will playfully bite each other, which leaves the marks on their skin. Speaking of skin, their skin is very smooth because they shed it every 2 hours. After the personal interaction, we got to snorkel in the open space with them. A few of us tried to race them and had no chance to beat them. They would literally swim circles around us. It was really cool to be underwater and hear them communicate, but have no idea where they are in the water. They would come out of nowhere and swim right next to you and then swim away quickly. After the dolphin dive, we went on a dive at Gibson’s Bight to just look around and get more ideas for our research projects.

In the afternoon, we went to West End and shopped around for a couple hours. Some of us bought tokens to support the marine park because the government does not provide any monetary support for the marine park, which takes care of one of the most important tourist attractions. These tokens are not mandatory to purchase, so the proceeds go directly to the marine park instead of the Honduran government.

The Honduran government does not provide support for the Roatán Marine Park for reef protection or restoration. Most of us partook in consumption of gelato.

At the end of the evening, each research group presented their project ideas to everyone. One group is looking into lionfish abundance at different depths, another is looking at parrotfish abundance in relation to coral cover, another group is looking at yellowtail damselfish juvenile and adult abundance, and the last group is looking at fish cleaning stations and the species richness of the cleaning fish and the fish being cleaned. Tomorrow we continue to work on our research projects.