I found an excellent set of 25 maps prepared by the Réserve Naturelle Saint Martin. A PDF containing the maps is available on their web site: http://www.reservenaturelle-saint-martin.com. The maps show the various geological, archeological and biological zones of the island, along with many other key natural and man-made features. I anticipate these maps will be very useful as we plan future explorations, and perhaps we can help advance studies of the island by independently verifying their accuracy. The PDF (64 MB) of the maps is here.

Yesterday morning I went up Goat Mountain for a little look see and saw a pretty amazing capture. A large (4-5 inch wingspan) sphinx moth was caught on a long spider web that stretched probably 12 feet between two trees. It was still alive and tried to fly away a few times, attracting the attention of a monarch butterfly. Also pictured below are a baby lizard that was on our front steps and a lensbaby photo of the town of Grand Case.

Also, the goat skull I retrieved a couple days ago was missing from our balcony last night. Were the staff concerned about Obeah (the local voodoo-type religion)? No, it just got blown off the balcony by the wind.

A new species of Ghost Shark was discovered off the coast of Southern California. It is now called the Eastern Pacific black ghostshark (Hydrolagus melanophasma) and it is a type of Chimaera. Chimaeras are cartilaginous fish that are very ancient in design – hundreds of millions of years old. Their closest relatives are sharks and rays. These critters can look mighty odd. Here’s a photo of a Chimaera we saw in Roatan, while deep underwater in the submarine Idabel.