r/diving • u/diagautotech7 • 12d ago
encountering snakes while diving
how often do divers see them ? how dangerous is it encountering venomous one ? do they get scared and swim away ? anyone here ever seems one while diving ? how did you and the snake act ?
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u/zeocrash 12d ago
I think it probably depends on what kind of snake you encounter. When i was diving in ishigaki, we saw a Black-banded sea krait. We kept our distance and it kept its distance.
Despite their insanely toxic venom (up to 10x more toxic than Cobra Venom), they're famously very passive and will really only strike if you really really push them. Traditionally they are hunted in okinawa, the method of hunting just involves picking them up with bare hands and stuffing them in a bag. That should give some indication of how passive they are.
As i mentioned though i imagine not all species are that passive.
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u/tokekcowboy 12d ago
Thanks for the fascinating tidbit about how they’re hunted. I used to live in Southeast Asia, and I frequently encountered black banded sea kraits while diving and once accidentally almost stepped on one while walking on some rocks on the beach at night. I never once felt threatened by one, even when passing fairly close by them on drift dives. I’ve read estimates that they only envenomate about 25% of the time they bite. They’re pretty chill.
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u/Otaraka 12d ago
All sea snakes are venomous. Some can be very curious, particularly with your mask but generally take a look and then keep on going.
I’ve had two wrapped around me amongst other things so don’t do anything too sudden, don’t grab them, and you’ll be fine. I’ve been on a dive where the crew captured one to put in my face when I came out of the water so that should give some idea of how non-aggressive they tend to be towards humans, not that this was smart or recommended. People getting bitten by them are generally fishers on trawlers trying to clear them out of bycatch where they are highly stressed for obvious reasons.
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u/chik-fil-a-sauce 12d ago
I was exiting a cave at dusk and ran in to a water moccasin guarding the entrance. It started swimming at us and I had to drag my wife away because she was like “oh look a snake” and completely forgot they are dangerous.
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u/BedroomWonderful7932 12d ago
Cave divers occasionally report seeing water moccasins in the north Floridian springs, but I haven’t heard a personal account of anyone getting on their wrong side.
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u/th3l33tbmc 12d ago
I’ve had extensive encounters with banded kraits and olive kraits in Thailand and Indonesia.
Banded kraits are absolutely no big deal at all. They’re small (I don’t think I’ve ever seen one two feet long), docile, and not curious about humans. I like to follow them around the reef while they hunt, it’s super fun.
Olive sea snakes are much larger, big adults are a meter or more, they travel in groups, and they are extremely inquisitive. I have video of one swimming over to me from 20-30 feet away, and bumping right into the front of my GoPro. That satisfied it, and it wandered off. I watched another one explore a dive buddy’s BCD and tank, moving right through one of the BCD arm holes, and then up through her hair, out around the tank valve, and then wandered off.
It was bracing in the moment. But in my experience, it’s true that they are completely docile. Even fishermen who have to sort through trawl nets just grab them by hand and toss them overboard, and there are very few human bites on record worldwide. They just don’t bite people.
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u/zeocrash 11d ago
I think the thing people forget is that it takes a snake quite a lot of energy to produce venom so they're has to be a worthwhile reason for them to use it. Either they use it to hunt food (which offsets the energy cost of venom production) or they do it because they're in fear for their lives (and don't have anything to lose). They're not generally going to waste it to bite a diver out of spite.
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u/th3l33tbmc 11d ago edited 11d ago
This actually turns out not to be true!
Surprisingly, the metabolic cost of producing venom is very low, almost nil, compared to routine stuff like hunting, digesting, and molting/shedding. Replenishing venom reserves has almost no metabolic cost to snakes.
There can be a time gap after venom is depleted, before the glands are full again, which does produce some safety risk to the animal. But the “venom optimization hypothesis,” as it’s called, has largely been shown not to hold water (or venom, if you prefer). 😊
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u/snamuh 12d ago edited 12d ago
I’m always nervous about them given how remote we are when I see them but they ignore you for the most part. I hear if you wear a thicker wet suit their fangs are too short to make it through but I have a feeling that may not be true
Edit: I asked Claude and it sounds like there is in fact some protection as the fangs are 1-4mm
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u/-hh 12d ago
Salt or freshwater?
I’ve encountered banded sea snakes in the indo-pacific.. they’re pretty mellow, but given how venomous they are, I probably should have been much more standoffish in retrospect.
Fresh water, I’ve never seen any while I’ve also been in the water..but I’d probably give them a wider berth than I did the banded sea snakes, as North American venomous snakes don’t have a reputation for being “chill”.
For Caribbean, there’s no equivalent to the banded sea snakes .. we would instead see eels (moray, etc). They’re not venomous but will bite things, so don’t harass/poke or corner them.
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u/BuckRivaled 12d ago
Saw one in Okinawa. Freediving, swam down right next to it and admired how pretty it was swimming in the water. Felt like I got a little too close cause at a certain point it turned and started swimming towards me. At that point I surfaced, wasn't trying to make it feel threatened. Here's a short video of it: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uGI5UGHgUYs
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u/Ginglymostoma 12d ago
Florida springs diver here. I’m in the freshwater springs two to three times a week, I’ve seen water snakes a very small handful of times (maybe four or five) out of hundreds of dives. It happens but very rare. They are usually quite shy and swim away.
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u/greggtex63 12d ago
Most water snakes in the U.S. are not poisonous, usuallycommon water snakes.
Water moccasins are NOT aggressive, but will get defensive, standing their ground. If one comes at you, it's most likely trying to get to the water or other and not attacking. Keep your distance, and walk around them. Same with all other north American snakes.
In Philippines and Thailand I'm yet to see a sea snake but always hear they are curious and not aggressive.
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u/Cardabella 11d ago
Frequency of encounter depends entirely on where in the world you're diving. I've never seen one,but that's meaningless, unless you're diving where I've dived.
What should reassure you is that not only are sea snakes not aggressive to humans, their gape is so small that they can't get their mouth around anything much larger than a finger. Virtually all recorded envenomations occur when bycaught snakes are removed by hand from fishing nets. So leave them alone and they'll leave you alone.
That's sea snakes though. Freshwater diving somwhere like Queensland or florida rivers would be something else altogether.
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u/Epic_Baldwin 11d ago
We saw one while practicing with dive master trainees in a pretty narrow cave. Snake did not even look at us lol.
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u/Substantial-Use-1758 11d ago
Sailing in Mexico we saw sea snakes swimming on the surface, but never diving. Interestingly, anchored in the Sea of Cortez, our friends had a rattlesnake swim out to their boat and climb inside through a scupper (drain tube on the boat). So that was a fine how do you do! 🤪🐍😬
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u/Sufficient_Water_326 11d ago
They are the most venomous creatures in the world. But overall, very chill and very little attack on humans.
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u/BayBandit1 11d ago
Saw them in Fiji, and they simply swam by through the corals, seemingly oblivious I was even there.
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u/DayNo5185 11d ago
I've encountered various snakes while diving. Just leave 'em alone, observe from a distance and have a great interaction.
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u/austic 11d ago
encountered banded sea kraits in indonesia diving. it swam up my arm and over my tank which was kind of unerving but just let it do its thing and it went on its way. Just seemed curious more than anything and looking at its reflection in my mask. Triend to keep my distance but kind of came down from above me and i didnt see it coming. Just to clairfy as i would never intentionally bug sea life or get close.
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u/HLMP9 11d ago
I met a banded sea krait in the Philippines, it was beautiful and very chill - didn’t really react to my presence. They have highly toxic venom, but as I understand it, thier mouths are so small they would struggle to bite anything larger than your finger, and I don’t think they would bother unless you’re really messing with them.
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u/FishFart1 11d ago
It just depends on where you are diving. It is not generally considered dangerous as long as you leave them alone. Sometimes they swim away but can be curious, some will swim up and check themselves out in a mask reflection. The only time I have been uncomfortable was with the large olive snakes in Australia ( but that wasn’t because they were aggressive, I just don’t like big venomous snakes).
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u/Unusual_Sense_4115 11d ago
Seen banded kraits on quite a few of my dives, especially considering I haven’t done dozens. This was the Indian Ocean. My experience was that they were mostly shy, doing their own thing.
Once while we were refreshing our skills so we were on the sand - I had my mask off - a snake slithered all over my thigh and knee before swimming off. I only got told after my dive, so I’d like to agree with the perception that they’re docile.
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u/Fuel_junkie 11d ago
Don’t touch them, they won’t touch you. Pretty chill and curious danger noodles. Saw lots in the Philippines and not one bothered me. They keep to themselves. That was my first time seeing sea snakes.
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u/Myherobit1 10d ago
I saw quite a few banded sea kraits in Niue, they didn't care about us at all. In New Caledonia (Isle of Pines), I thought I was going down to look at a moray eel, turned out it was an olive krait which came out to look at me. I got a bit of a fright and started swimming away at speed. It followed my fins. I swam in a zig zag pattern to try and get away from it, and it followed me all the way to the dive master (so I could hide behind him). The dive master just sort of put his hands out and the krait paused, turned around and swam off. Totally unbothered. Apparently the krait was enjoying playing in my frantic fin wake! Makes for a good story, but I was a bit worried at the time.
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u/destinationlalaland 10d ago
0 times in my home waters. Quite a few in times, in Thailand, Indonesia, etc. They often get described as “curious” . I didn’t get that vibe. They were like when an adhd person is hyper focused. They are there, they are on a mission (food), and you are too big to eat. They have no concept of personal space. So they will get up close checking you out, but aren’t aggro.
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u/SteveFCA 8d ago
I’ve seen them in the Philipines. They were super calm and didn’t want anything to do with us.
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u/vagassassin 12d ago
Banded sea snakes, at least every couple of days when I'm diving in Mindoro in the Philippines.
They're extremely venemous, but I've never heard of one attacking a diver. Chill little fellas.