German Memory in Asia - A Day With the Sea Snake

Marita and Miriam Swimming in the near distance brought my attention back to the world.


I thought it better for me to go back from the sandy beach shore to the restaurant and indulge in my favourite pastime of Ocean watching.


While I was turning my glance from the swimming German Praktikum (Internship) students in the southern direction of the western coastal beach shore, I saw number of tiny crabs. They were very busy on the shiny beach searching food. When I started to move towards the restaurant the crabs suddenly disappeared one by one into little holes on the beach, which was their shelter.



While walking towards the restaurant, a large wave struck against the shore passing me and receded slowly. When the waves receded, a moving object in the distance caught my eye. I wondered what it might be and rushed towards it before it disappeared into the sea. I found it resembled a sea snake or a different variety of fish. At times it looked like a snake moving towards the sea in a snake-like glide.



Before I could get near it, a large wave rolled turbulently towards the shore and the moving object disappeared with the wave into the deep ocean. The Indian Ocean is the home for some of the deadliest sea snakes; the yellow-bellied sea snakes and the black sea snakes. These are widely scattered and more venomous than the rest. The yellow-bellied sea snake which resembles an eel is often mistaken for an eel, accounting for several lives. But the yellow-bellied sea snake rarely comes to the surface confining itself to the seabed of the Indian Ocean.


I worried if it was a sea snake it might reach the students who were just a few meters in a few minutes' time by swimming on the surface with side-ward movements with the help of its laterally compressed tail, which acts as a paddle. The yellow-bellied sea snakes can move quickly by floating by ocean currents.


I stepped further towards sea, but it was a hard task to discern what it was in the heavily moving sea waves from the shore. Though my mind alerted me to quickly warn the students to come out of the sea, I decided to watch the sea surface and the shore for some time to determine whether the object I saw was a live or a dead snake or any other object. I was watching the sea waves closely but saw no sign of it.


I was scared of sea snakes which are venomous and capable of killing a human being within just two hours. The internship students were still in the sea and showed no sign of coming ashore.


I had heard of stories about this particular species of snake, which fisherman occasionally sold as exotic eels when they accidentally get caught in their fishing nets. I have heard stories of its powerful swimming with side-ward floating and being the only sea snake extant on both sides of the Pacific and having the distinction of having reached the Hawaiian Islands other than its habitats in the Indian ocean and its seas around Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, India and Sri Lanka.


Though the yellow-bellied sea snakes are found throughout coastal south eastern Asia, Indonesia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands extending to the western coast of the Americas from Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands north to Baja California and the Gulf of California is very common in the Sri Lankan seas.


A large wave interrupted my thought and the water moved passing me towards the sand shore and observed again there was a tiny thing moving with the returning waves. As I was close by this time I have noted that it was not a deadly sea snake but a dead-sea creature resembling a snake, but not even a fish. When I went close and I found it was a cut-off part of a large cuddle fish's tail.


I heaved a sigh of relief.


My eye sight was turned towards the happily bathing students in the waters of Indian Ocean. I wondered whether they were aware of these tropical sea snakes. The yellow bellied sea snake gripped my mind. I saw some time back a documentary film either in the National Geographic or Discovery channel when it was moving so vivaciously and catching fish. It infuses its neurotoxin venom into the fish and will let it die or partially paralysed and then swallowed it.


The fascinating and terrible way of living in the undersea marine world always makes me wonder.