INSECTS! Freaking driving me crazy I tell you. Of course they’re not just the normal kind that simply land on your flesh and wait for you to shun them away. This is Australia, where creatures take everything to a new extreme. These damn things are super spastic, writhing around all over my face, arms, and legs like they’re jacked up on speed, or just drank 5 consecutive cans of RedBull (which I’ve done by the way. I don’t recommend it; I ended up having Denise pull the rental car over so I could attempt to puke onto the red clay of Kauai. It was an ordeal). Every time I step out of the bridge they immediately gravitate to my face, zipping aimlessly about my eyes and mouth at lightning speed. What a terrible subdivision of the arthropods. It’ a shame we’re losing bats at an astonishing rate to habitat destruction, we could use more of our ecolocating, big eared, hairy winged, insect eating allies in this world (and I don’t mean the French). Despite the swarming insects, today was ripe with interesting fauna sightings. Like most days out here, it started with a glorious sunrise over the ocean, followed by many intense hours of boredom staring into a void while listening to “It’s All Politics” and “This American Life” on my IPod, broken by the sudden emergence of Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins. They appeared to be feeding along the edge of the dredge plume, and stayed near the ship for several hours. Once the Gateway’s hopper was filled to the brim with crushed coral and ancient rocks, we set a course for the spoil grounds, and in transit I spotted my first positively indentified Hawksbill Turtle and about a dozen sea snakes. Sea snakes are often seen in route to and around the area where we dump the dredged material.
Sea snakes are in the family Hydrophiidae, a close branch to the family Elapidae, or the cobras. And like cobras, all true sea snakes are extremely venomous. Thus, not much is known about their life history or taxonomy; that is the number, distribution, relatedness, and status of species worldwide. There are likely over 32 species of sea snakes in tropical waters around Australia, both in the Indian and Pacific Oceans; 11 of which have only been observed in Australian waters (according to my fellow MMOer Ben). Superficially sea snakes don’t vary much by way of coloration or patterns. To accurately identify them, one must take meticulous measurements and counts of various physical features; such as counting scales and noting the placement of teeth. In order to do this the animal has to be dead. So I don’t bother trying. Locally the striped sea snakes tend to be in the genus Hyrophis, while snakes with a solid color fall into the genus Aipysurus. I’m almost certain the snake pictured is Hydrophis elegans, supposedly common around Barrow. Anyway a sea snake is a sea snake, and they’re pretty damn cool to watch… from a distance. 
In the event that anyone else besides my mom follows these posts, you’ll note that it would appear I am back on site working and not sailing around the Indian Ocean avoiding cyclones. Well you are correct, we returned to Barrow Island yesterday afternoon once the captain determined the low pressure system moving down the coast posed no threat. Not a bad call, today was a pleasant sunny day.
I've heard that most sea snakes can't open their mouths wide enough to bite a human and thus aren't a big concern for us. Do you know if that's true?
ReplyDeleteCool shot of the humpbacked dolphins! They both look pretty scarred up, I wonder if they are really rough with each other, have a lot of encounters with sharks and boats, or a combination.
Not true, they have been known to cause injury to humans. In general, however, they are harmless until prevoked; with the exception of a few aggressive species that will approach you. As with any venomous snake, a bite isn't necessarily fatat; it depends on the size of their fangs and the amount of venom injected.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure the scaring on the Sousa are from other dolphins (possibly even bottlenose) and the way they feed in the reef. They don't look like boat injuries. My guess would be the bottlenose beat them up.