Sea Turtles and Sharks oh my!

This past week has been one for the books! This was my second time visiting San Salvador but there were many new things that I was fortunate to experience. There are sea turtles that frequently visit Graham's Harbor and we were able to meet two different ones! The first one's name was Saint and the second one we actually got to name ourselves! Its name is now Trojan (in honor of UALR). Following along with the turtles and watching them graze among the sea grass beds was a once in a lifetime opportunity. These creatures are so amazing and graceful underwater, it was such a unique snorkel adventure to observe them in their natural habitat. The sea turtles were definitely my favorite part of the week! We also gave a few other new things a try this week while exploring the island, the most thrilling of which was swimming out to "The Wall" where the carbonate platform of the island drops off drastically. Before you know it you're staring off into the deep dark ocean. I was very nervous walking down the beach to the spot we entered the water and I was still even more nervous swimming out that far to get to the wall. Once we had made it to the drop off, the water got so deep all of a sudden that you could not see anything but the deepest blue color one could imagine. We saw huge schools of fish, numerous sting rays, and we even saw a few different sharks that were hanging out around the edge of the wall. Once out there, my nervousness subsided and I was able to enjoy the beauty for what it was and reflect on how small we really are compared to the vast ocean.

I have never felt so small looking out into the deep, even compared to when I've been on the tops of mountains and looking out across the landscape. One thing that has affected me much more than I anticipated was the overall health of our ocean's corals. Compared to two years ago, so much more of the coral has bleached and is now deserted wastelands with the decayed skeletal remains covered in algae. The importance of our coral reefs is one that is often overlooked and I have come back with a renewed passion for saving our planet's oceans. This has been an enlightening trip overall and we got to witness some of the most amazing things! I know that I will be returning again at some point in the future to this wonderful island, and hopefully we can all start doing a little bit more to make less of a human impact on our oceans and planet overall.
Elizabeth Haralson