Little Cayman 2018

The 2018 excursion to Little Cayman began on the Marine Corps Birthday, November 10. It happened that most of the veteran divers that trip were Marines, and that first night they held a ceremony to celebrate the Marine Corps’ 243rd birthday. They read the Commandant’s birthday message and had a cake ceremony (complete with a key lime pie). “To Corps, country, and each other.” It was such an incredible way to kick off an amazing week of diving and service.

 

On this excursion the Central Caribbean Marine Institute staff kept the divers busy. In addition to DWH’s annual tasks of cleaning the coral nursery and participating on the island’s weekly lionfish cull, the divers spent a lot of time moving concrete block to set-up new coral nursery structures and removing old structures for cleaning and redeployment. The divers got a kick out of removing their fins to walk along the ocean floor while moving concrete block. They also learned about marine plastic pollution and gave back to the island by participating in a beach clean-up.

 

The week wrapped up with the divers taking the boat to Cayman Brac to dive the M/V Captain Keith Tibbetts, and hanging their own piece of driftwood art in the CCMI dining room. That driftwood serves as a small memorial to the men and women of DWH who have made the trip to Little Cayman to spend a week building community, learning about how to care for our oceans, and giving back.

 

In addition to 11 dives, the divers received their lionfish licenses from the Cayman Islands Department of Environment and earned their PADI Coral Conservation and Fish Identification Specialties.

 

DWH Beneficiaries: Chad Doncaster, Adam McCann, Luis Quiñones, Ryan Rivera, Sam Rosales and Kevin Wallace.

Returning Alumni: Ken Shere.