Beachgoers have been dodging an unusual threat at some of Queensland’s most popular holiday locations this week with a “mad rush” of sea snakes slithering ashore.<\/p>\n
Snake catchers have been kept busy with calls to rescue the unwelcome visitors from beaches across the Sunshine Coast.<\/p>\n
University of Queensland researcher Bryan Fry, who has been studying venomous animals and sea snakes for nearly 30 years, has warned people to stay well clear.<\/p>\n
He said that although they were fascinating creatures, their venom could kill.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Experts say sea snakes are not aggressive in nature. (Supplied: Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers)<\/p>\n
“Don’t pick it up because even though it’s injured or dying, it’s still capable of a lethal bite,” Dr Fry said.<\/p>\n
“Sea snake venom is very, very potent and could kill.”<\/p>\n
Rough weather and tides to blame<\/p>\n
Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers owner Stuart McKenzie has been catching and handling snakes for more than 12 years.<\/p>\n
He said it was unusual to spot a sea snake on a Sunshine Coast beach \u2014 except for when there had been rough weather.<\/p>\n
“When they’re either sick or get injured, or there’s large swells and they can’t get back out into that deep water, they will get washed ashore,” Mr McKenzie said.<\/p>\n
“We often get a mad rush of sea snakes all at once, which has happened over the last week.”<\/p>\n
Snake catcher and handler Stuart McKenzie. (Supplied: Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers)<\/p>\n
Mr McKenzie has been called out to more than 10 sea snake jobs this week alone.<\/p>\n
The snake catcher said sea snakes, as the name suggests, belonged in the ocean.<\/p>\n
“We do get a lot of weather events and big swells from time to time, and it certainly doesn’t help our sea snakes,” Mr McKenzie said.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes it’s because they’re just tired and they’ve been struggling against the tides trying to get out, but other times they might get hit by a boat, they might have an illness, and they do need help.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sea snakes have been washing up on Sunshine Coast beaches. (Supplied: Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers)<\/p>\n
He said once removed from the beach the “fragile” sea snakes were often relocated to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital.<\/p>\n
“A majority of the time they’re rehabilitated and released again, but sometimes obviously they succumb to their injuries or illness,” he said.<\/p>\n
‘Curious, gentle, and incredibly cool’<\/p>\n
Despite their deadly venom Dr Fry said sea snakes were not aggressive in nature.<\/p>\n
“They’re incredibly cool animals that, if you go diving with them, if you remain calm, you can end up having a remarkable encounter underwater,” he said.<\/p>\n
“If you don’t try to grab them and just kind of chill and hang out they’re going to get inquisitive with you.<\/p>\n
“But they might try to mate with your regulator hose.<\/p>\n
“They’re very curious and very gentle, but when messed with they will give you a savage bite.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sea snakes often wash up when ill, injured, or dead. (Supplied: Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers)<\/p>\n
He said sea snakes absorbed 20 per cent of their oxygen through their gas-permeable skin, which helped increase their dive time.<\/p>\n
A sea snake can dive more than 100 metres underwater and can also release carbon dioxide through its skin.<\/p>\n
But the “magnificent” snakes still need to come to the surface to breathe.<\/p>\n
“If they’re actively swimming, they have to breathe every 20 to 30 minutes. If they’re chilling on the bottom, you know, having a snooze, they have to breathe every three to four hours,” Dr Fry said.<\/p>\n
Dr Bryan Fry holding a sea snake. (Supplied: Bryan Fry)<\/p>\n
They also need fresh water to stay hydrated.<\/p>\n
“When there’s a storm and when there’s rain there’s a thin lens of fresh water on the top of the ocean water because fresh water is less dense than salt water,” Dr Fry said.<\/p>\n
“The sea snakes will drink off of that.”<\/p>\n
According to Dr Fry the biggest threat to a sea snake, other than rough seas, was sharks.<\/p>\n
“Sharks love slurping them down \u2026 they’re basically fettuccine for them because the sea snake doesn’t even get a chance to have a defensive bite against the shark. It’s just going to bite it in half,” he said.What not to do<\/p>\n
If you stumble upon a sea snake washed up at the beach, the best course of action is to report it.<\/p>\n
“We’ve had people pick them up and try and put them back in the ocean thinking they’re helping,” Mr McKenzie said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to experts sea snakes will only bite when scared. (Supplied: Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers)<\/p>\n
“Anytime someone sees a sea snake, or any snake really, whether it’s on the beach or in the bush, you should leave them alone. Keep a safe distance. Keep pets away.”<\/p>\n
The snake catcher said even if a snake looked dead, do not touch it.<\/p>\n
“I’ve picked them up before and as soon as you touch them they start flailing around,” Mr McKenzie said.<\/p>\n
“Leave it to the professionals.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beachgoers have been dodging an unusual threat at some of Queensland’s most popular holiday locations this week with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,17713,44,8516,55686,55687,11942],"class_list":{"0":"post-70814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-beach","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sea-snakes","13":"tag-snake-catcher","14":"tag-snake-handler","15":"tag-sunshine-coast"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}