Today [27 Jan.] was my first day of the trip in Honolulu, but not my first time. I came with Croix / Tiff / Dot / Croix's friend the summer I moved to SC. It was funny because on the way to my FDP for my Biology of Sharks class I passed the Ruth Chris where we ate dinner and ran the water-waiter around all night being obnoxious.

I went to the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology's island, Coconut Island, and got a tour around the little island and a short shark lecture. On the tour I saw a really big, adorable spotted puffer fish who followed me around, two black tip reef sharks [one who was always followed by a fish named Jack who the grad students think wishes to be a shark], and a lot of orange sea cucumbers which I was not a huge fan of. From the island you can see the island that was used in the intro to Gilligan's Island as well as some of the places where 50 First Dates was shot.

After the tour / shark lecture the group, about 13 students and our teacher from the ship, dissected 4 baby Hammerhead Sharks that had washed up dead. One of them had baby shrimps in his stomach still which was odd to see.

After that we snorkeled around the mangroves and the reef around the island. I saw Little Bitty Yellow Tang [the fish from Nemo that is very protective of its bubbles] and a Moorish Idol [Gill from Nemo]. I saw a lot of other fish but those were the only I recognized from Nemo. I really didn't like swimming where it was really shallow because I was close to the sea cucumbers, and while they can't hurt you, something about them just really grossed me out for some reason. I saw two yellow trump fish and some types of butterfly fish and others I didn't recognize. After that we headed back to the ship and I am going to meet up for dinner with some people and then pass out. I forget how exhausting travel can be, especially crammed back to back. I wish we had a day at sea as a break before classes start back up to rest, but that's not going to happen just yet.