Coral Reefs are made from animals called polyps. Reefs are home to many different species of animals like anemones and clownfish, like in Nemo. Yesterday I went snorkeling on the second largest coral reef in the world, off the coast of Belize, from an island called Caye Caulker. I tell you all about it here and there is a video posted below.

That morning, I woke up and went next door to the bakery and ate a chocolate croissant. Then I got on my bike and rode into town to Ez Boyz Tourz. We waited a little while for our guides to set up the boat. We talked to the owner and she said that my family of three were the only people on the tour. “Yea!,” we have a private tour!

Once the boat was ready the guides took us to the ”back” of the island where we went to a brown shack where humongous fish surrounded the boat. Our guide told us to hold little sardines between our pointer finger and thumb and hold our hands out flat over the water. And then my mom stuck her hand out over the water and one of the giant fish jumped straight out of the water and took the sardine right out of my Mom’s hand. Then I tried it and none of the fish jumped out of the water right away. It scared me so much when it finally jumped out and grabbed my fish. This fish were called tarpons.

Next, our guide said since we were the only people on the tour he would take us to see some manatees that his friend spotted earlier. We saw the snouts of the manatees popping up out of the water. It was so exciting, but we had to wait for a long time for the manatees to show up.

Our next stop was a dock that had a sign that said “Natural Seahorse Reserve”. There was a big net with a bunch of fish surrounding it and seahorses, whose only defense is camouflage, hidden on the net. The seahorses were so cool. They were really camouflaged and covered in algae and I think they were asleep.

The next stop was on the other side of the island where we went snorkeling. We stopped first at this place in the ocean that had really pretty, clear water. The guide gave us soap and he said “Put three drops of this on the inside of your mask so it won’t fog up. Don’t touch or pick up any sea life. Don’t step on or chip any coral. Take only pictures and memories. Follow my lead.” We went off the boat backwards but my mom went sideways and belly flopped. We had to swim a little ways to get to the coral but once we got there, marine life was everywhere.

We saw parrot fish, trumpet fish, and an eel that came straight up to my face. We stopped at a few other spots and swam with nurse sharks, stingrays, ballyhoos, and lots of different colorful fish. We even spotted barracudas.

We ended our tour by feeding frigate birds some fresh sardines by holding them high in the air. They came out of the air, swooped down, and ate the fish out of our hands.

It was a really cool snorkeling trip and I learned that the reef in Belize is dying because the water is getting warmer and more acidic and the sunscreen and bug spray used by tourists is contaminating the reef. This makes me very sad.