SEA SNAKES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 7 June 1927, Page 5

SEA SNAKES

IN AUSTRALIAN WATERS

ROME BIG ' SPECIMENS

We need not worry about sea snakes —reptiles that are thought To have caused severe pains suffered by bathers in the sea at Beadon, in West Australia (says a writer in the “Melbourne Herald”). It is reported that scientific opinion supports the view that young sea snakes, which frequent the waters of the south-western shores, have attacked bathers, but were not able to bite them so as In cause fatal poisoning. All the sea snakes are highly venomous and in tropic waters, as those of North Queensland, they are abundant. Victoria is practically free of these dreaded reptiles. Only one kind, the yellow-bellied sea snake, so far, has been recorded; and its occurrence must be regarded as accidental. This species ranges over the Pacific and Indian Oceans; it attains a length of two to three feel, has yellow sides and tail yellow, spotted or banded with black and the back is dark brown or black.

These snakes live in the sea and often are seen swimming lazily or basking at the surface. I have met them along the Great Barrier Reef and on a coral isle found scores of sea snake skcletcms beneath the great nest of a pair of sea eagles; the birds had been feeding their brood on serpent flesh ! Sea snakes feed on fish chiefly. The largest known species is so formidable that it might serve as a young “sea serpent”—its length averages about 12 feet. The young of these sea-dwelling reptiles are produced alive in the water. In some of the South Sea isles, far from fearing sea snakes, native children are said to coil them round their necks ns living necklaces and use them as armlets, too!