Beautiful Underwater Video From Fiji and Tonga

[MartinLiss]

View full screen,

[Hack]

Breath taking (pun intended)

Does anyone know what that black and white ringed snake thingy was? If that thing had come near me I would have contracted a case of the "bends" getting back to the surface and on the boat.

[MartinLiss]

It looks like it's a Banded Sea Krait.

From the web:

Air-breathing sea snakes are common in Tonga and Fiji. The Banded Sea Krait has a distinctive black head and black and white bands and flat tail (adapted for swimming). It's often seen on the reefs, but can also be found along the coasts, on the rocky shores. The sea snake photographed here has a yellow and black head, and is also called a sea krait, but we don't know its species. Most sea snakes come ashore in freshwater inlets and give birth to live young on land. Although these snakes have a toxin many times more deadly than any land snakes, they are very docile in the sea (some divers handle them, but not us!). Their fangs are actually in the back of their mouths, and their mouths are so small they cannot get purchase on anything much bigger than a small finger, so bite victims are extremely rare. They also only eject venom when feeding or under great duress. We have had one slither up into our dinghy and we used the boat hook to fling it out, not wanting to find out the extent of the creature’s definition of “great duress”! A week later Sue was standing on the sugar-scoop working on the dinghy and felt something gently rubbing her foot. Freak out! It was on the deck, under the ladder! The flash picture scared it back into the water!