That was my thoughts. In fact, I don't know what I was most impressed with; watersnakes being so nonchalant about the presence of people, or the the fact that the area wasn't littered with smashed corpses. I realize I'm making alot of assumptions, but perhaps the casual and (from a non-herper's point of view) unaggressive way the snakes presented themselves inhibited the normal defensive reaction in people. It wasn't as if people were unaware of them. Everyone we talked to there mentioned them, but always in a fairly unconcerned way. All in all, an interesting experience but my past experience with people and snakes leads me to believe it won't last long.