From DiveHappy.com
In my last column I strayed a little off the path of my usual marine animals and marine disease route, but it was about cobras. We can make exceptions for cobras, right? Of course we can. For now lets head right back into the sea and explore the legends, myths, and stories of one of it’s deadliest venomous animals; the appropriately named sea snake.
Sea snakes are found primarily in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific Ocean, so do not fret my fellow North Americans of the west coast; they do not get much further east than Australia! In fact only two species are found on the coasts of the Americas (mostly in Mexican waters), so your odds of seeing them are low unless you travel. They are like any other snake and must breath air, but most all can not function on land, only 5 of the 62 species are in fact able to function on land. This is due to their scales having evolved for life in the water and lack the grip they need to move on land. Yes ladies, they are just too smoooooooooooooth.
I’m sure my lovely and talented publisher has gone and added some stunning photographs for this article as she always does when I don’t send them along.
When I think of snakes on land I think of that creepy slithering they do along the ground on their bellies. Or I picture them hiding out in bushes until they leap out and scare your mother half to death. Sea snakes though, I see them floating there in the ocean looking like ribbons of pattern and colour decorating an ocean party for Ken Kesey and the Hell’s Angels.
Frightening, beautiful and deadly streamers with teeth filled to the tip with venom. They look like fun, but I’ll bet they are quite an intense crowd to be around.
From DiveHappy
The fun for today is the traditional healing methods and superstitions of the people of Vietnam who all too often had encounters with sea snakes while practising the fishing method called draw net fishing that involves standing right in the water hauling the nets up. In the seasons when the sea snake is most commonly in these shallow areas where the fishermen wade into the water, bites can occur as frequently as 2 or 3 a day. This has caused a bit of myth and superstition amongst the locals.
The traditional method of healing sea snakes bites that was most often employed back before modern medicine was more regularly accessible, varied. One method involved lying the effected person down on a bed of water-bindweed and proceeding to cure what appeared to be the problem; that sleep was being induced by the bite. They would attempt waking the victim up by banging metal pots and yelling loudly. Sea snake venom can induce a state which looks like the person may be about to slumber, but is more likely about to die.
There was also the ever popular option of mashing up various vegetables into a paste and applying it to the bitten area. This was said to ‘draw out’ the venom, it’s ‘success’ rate was largely dependent on whether or not the sea snake had actually injected venom or not, as they do not always inject venom with every bite as is the case with most venomous animals.
The most extreme method employed was an amputation of the effected limb. The old ‘bit by a zombie’ trick. Which, if preformed quickly enough could actually work, referring to the sea snake bite of course. Medical science has not yet determined an opinion on amputation post zombie bite. Most of the people of Vietnam went with the water-bindweed bed and shouting, or vegetable paste route rather then with the amputation option. I wish them all the best in the coming of the Zombie Apocalypse.
Zombies? Really Matt? This column keeps getting terribly off track. We’re here to talk sea snakes! Lets wrap it up with one fact about sea snakes that I really enjoy; their venom is up to 40 times deadlier than that of a cobra, but they still manage to interact peacefully with divers the world over. They are much more a curious creature than a scary one, which is accentuated all the more by their beautiful appearance of being streamers winding through the ocean for an underwater party.
Taking a nap but waking up rested,
Matt Yeoman
PHOTO SOURCES @ Flickr, Flickr, Flickr, Flickr, DiveHappy, DiveHappy
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