Greg.. a snake question

[PK]

was Sailfishing in Acapulco while on the cruise( only caught one Sailfish that day)..

on the way back in saw all these birds 'sitting' just offshore.. you can see the beach in the background.. then we started seeing what appeared to us were 'seasnakes'.. hard to get a pic of them moving along .. got the Captain to slow down and got this pic.. they seemed to be around the perimeter of all those birds... mate and Captain didn't want any part of them.. assumed they were poisonous.. oops.. venomous.. what I could gather in their limited English

they were all over the place as we were passing by the birds.. one here.. one there.. about 18-30" in length..thin... at times they'd pop their head and half their body out of the water..as soon as we were totally clear of the birds.. there were no more

I cropped the pic(pic#1) from the original (2nd pic) to zoom in on the snake..
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2758321310049937141ThWItK

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2594144470049937141DJbZiR

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2893508680049937141umpgSs

and the rest of the Acapulco album.. those were on page 3 with a few more pics of all the birds... http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/562645211JPuuMz?start=56

any idea what the heck kind of snake it is..sure was pretty.. and that's usually not good..

[Jack Hexter]

Looks like a yellow bellied sea snake (Pelamis Platurus)

http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/images/pplaturuscrdb.jpg

http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/p.platurus.html

[PK]

looks like that's it.. sure glad we didn't get to pet those lil' boogers.. guess that old Captain and mate knew what they were talking about..

betcha they don't publicize them on the beaches there in Acapulco... yucky..and I mean that Greg of course in a 'good way' ..:D

[~~Snakeman~~]

Jack nailed it. I was going to give that answer without even looking at the pix. Only sea snake in the region. We went looking for them in Costa Rica...unsuccessfully. Yes, they are highly toxic critters. Swimming with them is probably safer than bringing one into the boat. In their element, they do not feel threatened, hence have no need to get defensive.

~~Greg~~

[PK]

thanx .. next time you want to find any.. I can assure you they are quite plentiful just off the beach in Acapulco.. and that was the only place I saw them along that coast on this trip..

geez.. I betcha they'd make great Cobia or Striper baits... instead of using eels.. hmmmm???...well.. then again.. maybe that ain't such a great idea.. hehehehee:D

[Bryan/BC]

Saw several between 15 and 20 inches nearshore at PV as well. Got the same story-- no problemo if you kept them inthe water.... watch out if you tried to handle them!!!