Sea snakes

[shellmoundal]

I will be diving Mexico at the end of this month. There are Sea Snakes in the Lagoon that I will be diving. I will be photographing them but I an also aware of how deadly they are.
Anyone have any experience diving with these snakes?
I will be diving in the Pacific not in Cozemel or in the tropics of that area. I have never dove the Pacific. The water temp is in the 80's. I was surprised that it will be that warm.

[Jay]

I saw a bunch in Australia. I can tell you they breathe air and the ones I saw moved through the water like a sidewinder when coming to the surface. It is kind of weird becasue they do it in 3d in the water column, hard to guess where they are going. I had them swim right up to me. I don't think they can bite through much material as there teeth are like 3/16" long or less. I never saw one swimming on the surface. I think they generally leave people alone and bites are very rare.

How lucky do you feel?

[phillip1]

they wont bite you, are not aggressive at all and are cool.
mouth is small so it would be hard to get bit, however if you do get bit you are in big trouble.
surfed with sea snakes pretty much every day at various reefs in Indonesia no problem, but then again I like snakes, very cool animals.
Diving will be zero problem

[Jay]

Oh, and don't leave any gauges, hoses etc dangling. The urban legend I heard was they look at them as mating opportunities.

[hunabku]

Gotta watch out for them saltwater moccasins!!!

[billyf]

they do not have fangs, they are more like coral snakes.
very small teeth that wont make it through a 1 or 2mm wet suit

I've see divers play with them in Japan, they would grab them by the tail and zip them from tail to head which would force the air out of them so the would fly to the surface for air.
if you dont screw with them then they are nothing to worry about.

[a64pilot]

"zipping" them form head to tail so they lose all their air, I would think pretty much defines screwing with them doesn't it?

[cavediver256]

"zipping" them form head to tail so they lose all their air, I would think pretty much defines screwing with them doesn't it?

LOL, Nah.....

[GLM]

Make no mistake they do have fangs. And coral snakes do too. Their fangs are small and fixed (like all snakes in the Elapidae family) - unlike the larger, hinged fangs that we see on North American pit vipers. Don't screw with them (or zip them OMG!) and they'll leave you alone...like all snakes.

they do not have fangs, they are more like coral snakes.
very small teeth that wont make it through a 1 or 2mm wet suit

I've see divers play with them in Japan, they would grab them by the tail and zip them from tail to head which would force the air out of them so the would fly to the surface for air.
if you dont screw with them then they are nothing to worry about.

[moose_grunt]

There were lots of them in Okinawa--usually saw at least two or three every dive. They seem to be curious, and will sometimes swim right up to you, check you out, and go away.

Getting close enough to take pictures of won't be a problem.

The only bites I ever heard of in three years of diving there were people screwing with them. The aforementioned "zipping" seemed to be the #1 way to get bitten.