[Obviously, Costa Rica again, not Maine!].
We went out for the morning on a small boat on Golfo Dulce, an inlet from the Pacific tucked in behind the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. It was flat calm,
except for patches of churning, frothing water where middle-sized fish had found a shoal of much smaller anchovies or sprat of some kind.
As is the way of the world, the big fish fed on the little fish, which jumped out of the water to try and escape:
only to find Sandwich Terns, Thalasseus sandvicensis, waiting for them.
This one caught two:
There were Brown Pelicans, Pelecanus occidentalis, around as well:
and Brown Boobies, Sula leucogaster:
and humans, Homo sapiens: these humans (our captain, and Jane) caught a Pacific Mackerel, Scomber japonicus:
and a Black Skipjack Tuna, Euthynnus lineatus, both released.
Most excitingly, a venomous Yellow Sea Snake, Hydrophis platurus xanthos, a subspecies found only in this tiny 320sqkm area, and only recognized by science in 2017.
It didn’t hang about, swiftly diving down deep.
This perfect day had a sad interlude. Our captain, a delightful marine biologist, whose name I’m withholding to protect his privacy, had a full-scale seizure apparently caused by heatstroke. Our guide Johan got the radio working and called for help, and eventually another boat took our captain to the nearest dock reachable by ambulance. Our boat took on board a crew member from the other boat and we continued on our way. Our guide Johan and the various crew handled the whole situation extremely well. We heard later that our captain had been discharged from hospital, sent home, and would be fine, but it was a terrifying reminder of how close mortality can be.
PS If you’d like to know more about why this sea snake is interesting, read here:
Eyes on the Wild 