15:15 On many
occasions I have previously wondered what else I could/would experience during
my time in San Miguel, now I think the answer is as long as a piece of string.
I am unable to
summarise this day with these small pages in my leather covered journal but let
me set the scene in this part. Today was
'Semana Santa,' a type of Easter holiday celebrated by Costa Ricans where most
tend to take the day off which would make a day of travel different but it
managed to change my day significantly considering there was also a major 'red
tide.'
EXTRA: A red
tide is aptly named as the sea looks red due to a build up of bacteria in the
water, which are toxic to fish and can move up the food chain easily taking out
other animals. The bacteria can kill in
two ways, by clogging up the gills or the breathing apparatus of the animals it
enters or by blocking out the sun causing the water to become anoxic
effectively starving the fish.
A red tide had
occurred at some point this morning and combined with Semana Santa (I welcome
the tourist counter…) made this a particularly interesting (apparently rare)
and busy day!
Basically: Three
cyclists woke me up at 06:30, after which I discovered some dead fish and saw
that the water was really red as the red tide had worsened a lot, but was yet
to clarify the extent. Once I saw a dead
Guineafowl Pufferfish I went grabbing my camera and started to document this
event, after I saw off another three
Costa Rican tourists. I raced off to beat the Black Vultures to collecting/documenting the evidence before they destroyed it!
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| Silver Seas And Scavengers (D.Philpot) |
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| Sudden High Black Vulture Abundance! (D.Philpot) |
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| Untrustworthy Waters (D.Philpot) |
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| Anchove Reaction To Red Tide (D.Philpot) |
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| Specimen Preservation (D.Philpot) |
I walked the
length of the beach where nearly all the fish were these silver anchovies. Then there was one more cyclist. I
spoke to DL then took samples of each to the lab for documentation and
preservation. I returned from the lab
quickly and started to make some poorly narrated video accounts along the beach
at which point I got distracted by that same one paraglider, one
plane, and a family of five
tourists along with four
Costa Ricans swimming with their dog in the water at risk of swallowing the red
tide bacteria or eating a dead fish from the surface. There was another one possible tourists who walked out with the plumbers.
No more
tourists came… 18 or 19 is enough for one day! I got all the videos done, saw
the plumbers dogs run into the park. At
this time (15:15) is when I have first sat down since those cyclists woke me up
early in the morning, and the first chance I have had to make myself some food at which point I found a few more creatures hanging around the lodge sink.
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| My Shower Buddy Has Relocated (D.Philpot) |
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| A Slippery Anole (D.Philpot) |
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| Ctenosaur Out For A Fishy Feast (D.Philpot) |
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| Cute Jumping Spider (D.Philpot) |
21:00 I spoke
to Krystal again tonight at around 18:30, it is nice to speak to a friendly
voice on the phone. I watched the sunset
and relaxed while a Skunk was close by but as normal I did not see it.
At the second low tide of the day I walked down the beach to find more
species washed up to preserve, and saw the plumbers dogs leave.
In summary the
fish I observed today dead on the beach (in order) include: Spicule Anchovy
(x2,000 on the beach, maybe another 1,500 floating), Night-Sergeant (a type of
Damselfish, x1), Blue Guineafowl Puffer (x2), Adult Flag Cabrilla (x1),
Juvenile Flag Cabrilla (x2), Panamic Fanged Blenny (x1), one of the types of
Grunts (x2), Tinsel Squirrelfish (x1), Juvenile Snook (x2), Juvenile
Scorpionfish (x2), huge Barred Pargo (x1) and a small Freckled Porcupinefish
(x1). This totals 16 randoms, and any
more additions will be added over the next few days.
It is odd as
many of these fish are bottom-dwellers so perhaps opportunistically fed on the
floating dead anchovy or were starved of oxygen somehow, previously I have
mentioned those red 'clouds' you can imagine seeing in the water almost like
blood in a movie. Perhaps even weirder
was being able to handle all these fish, especially the juveniles you don't get
to see out in the lagoon and the small Porcupinefish which was puffed up into a
spiky ball - very interesting, yet sad (Video Here).
.JPG) |
| Inflated Porcupinefish Victim (D.Philpot) |