Isla San Jose & the Sea Snake Saga

Being footloose and fancy free we decided to head over to Isla San Jose on our way back to La Paz. The northern beach at the southern end of the island was supposed to be a really good place to find the highly-sought after Paper Nautilus. The southern area also has an interesting salt pond opperation and a very large lagoon.

We dropped anchor under sail off the southern beach - my favorite way. We hiked through the salt ponds to the opposite shore.

This is the largest salt pond operation that we have seen. Many of the smaller ones have been abandoned. There was a large salt operation proposed for San Ignacio Lagoon, the very important whale breeding site on western Baja. It's hard to understand why it would even be suggested since there are so many other salt pond operations that have been abandoned. Fortunately the Mexican government refused to allow it since the area is so important to their environment and tourist industry.



The salt crystal formations were very beautiful.

 The northern beach was supposed to be covered with seaweed that catch and protect shells that had been blow in by the storm. All the seaweed was gone, very few shells were on the beach - but there were many interesting creatures that had been washed onto the beach.

I returned a few sea stars to the ocean and came across invertebrates that I couldn't ID. One looked like a long white worm, about 8" long and 1/2" in diameter. I thought it might be some sort of sand worm that had been exposed by the waves - they got left on the beach.

Worm in lower left and unidentified capsule in top center.

There were hundreds of these odd capsules along the beach. They looked like brown seaweed but really seemed to be more animal-like. There is a very distinct angled top and a moist navel-like opening on the back. Could they be an embryo? If you know what these are, please let me know.

I did manage to find one perfect Paper Nautilus shell. It's about 2" across. It's very delicate, you can easily crush them between your fingers, milky white and almost translucent.

Greg wasn't very interested in examining the various interesting things that the waves had washed up and he was a good half mile down the beach when I found the most interesting thing of all. It was easy to miss because it was dry and covered with sand. At first it looked like a piece of wood but it turned out to be a snake. I knew it was a sea snake because of the broad, flattened tail. It looked dried up and dead.

 
Now I will touch a lot of things, but I'm not completely comfortable with snakes unless they look like vulture jerky. I searched for a stick to poke it and only came up with a little twig. Like all the other sea creatures that I had found I flung it back into the sea. It bounced around in the surf for awhile and then the waves deposited it on the shore again. The ocean had rehydrated it and I recognized it as the very venomous yellow-bellied sea snake that I had read about. It is fairly common in some places and has been sighted in Bahia Magdelena and other areas in  the Sea of Cortez.

I watched it for awhile and it became obvious that it was alive. I figured that it was time for me to head back to the boat. This guy would probably find his way back to the sea by him/herself.


I would have just eaten the thing and been done with it. Silly humans.

Time has run out for me; there were lots of problems with software and the internet today and we have to go. The story continues....



Greg wrenches with a pescadero at Caleta Partida



Evening in Caleta Partida, looking east.