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Sea snakes are total nightmare fuel, but new research suggests their frequent \u201cattacks\u201d on scuba divers are in reality botched attempts to get lucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many scuba divers who explore tropical coral reefs in Australia and New Guinea are all too familiar with the highly venomous Olive sea snake (Aipysurus laevis<\/em>). These marine reptiles will often chase and attack divers without any provocation. These encounters can get scary in a real hurry, especially when a sea snake wraps itself around a diver\u2019s leg or arm and chomps down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deaths from venomous bites are recorded annually, and they typically involve fishermen. Attacks on scuba divers are also reported, but even when sea snakes don\u2019t bite, they can cause divers to panic, making an uncomfortable situation even worse. The reason for these unprovoked attacks isn\u2019t fully understood, hence the importance of a new study<\/a>, published today in Scientific Reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ever since Richard Shine, a co-author of the new paper and a scientist at Macquarie University in Australia, began working with sea snakes, he\u2019s wondered why these animals sometimes approach him, instead of swimming away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new study was an attempt to answer this question. Data for the research was collected by study co-author Tim Lynch, a scuba diver and researcher with CSIRO. Lynch carefully recorded the behaviors of the serpents in the southern Great Barrier Reef, in what was a 27-month scuba-based investigation of sea snake ecology. Strangely, these observations were made between 1993 and 1995, prompting me to ask Shine why his team\u2019s data is so old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou can blame COVID,\u201d Shine replied sarcastically, as the global pandemic is actually what made this work possible. Lynch gathered the data for his PhD thesis in 2000, and Shine knew about the work and wanted to cite it in his own sea snake research. This data was never published in peer-reviewed literature, so \u201cwith some time on my hands when COVID made fieldwork impossible, I contacted Tim and we agreed to go ahead and write it up for publication together,\u201d Shine explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a research subject for a field study, the highly venomous Olive sea snake is formidable. They\u2019re among the largest marine snake species, with adult females reaching 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length and weighing upwards of 6.6 pounds (3 kg). Males are only slightly smaller. These swimming snakes spend their entire lives underwater, are widespread in the tropical<\/p>\n\n\n\n waters around Australia and New Guinea, and subsist on a broad diet consisting of snails, fish, and crustaceans. During their attacks on divers, the sea snakes make rapid and jerky zigzag movements, which is very unlike their normal swimming behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the field sessions, Lynch was approached by sea snakes during 74 of 158 encounters. As they swam around him, the sea snakes often flicked their tongues near Lynch\u2019s body. Males approached him more frequently than females and also hung out for longer periods of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interactions happened most frequently from May through to August, which coincided with the sea snakes\u2019 mating season. During the mating season, \u201cmales spend much of their time swimming rapidly along the reef edge and courting any females they encounter,\u201d while females \u201coften flee from these courtship attempts, by taking refuge within coral crevices or swimming away rapidly,\u201d the researchers write in their study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On 13 different occasions\u2014all during mating season\u2014sea snakes charged Lynch at high speeds. Disturbingly, males coiled themselves around his flippers on several occasions\u2014a behavior typically seen during sexual interactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAgitated rapid approaches by males, easily interpreted as \u2018attacks\u2019, often occurred after a courting male lost contact with a female he was pursuing, after interactions between rival males, or when a diver tried to flee from a male,\u201d according to the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Female sea snakes also charged at Lynch, but they only did this after having been chased by a male or after having lost track of a lustful male.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taken together, these observations led the researchers to conclude that the seemingly aggressive sea snake behavior is not what it seems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe so-called \u2018attacks\u2019 by Olive sea snakes are due to mistaken identity\u2014usually occurring when a male sea snake is looking for females, or when a female is trying to escape the amorous attention of a male,\u201d Shine explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mistaking a human diver for a potential mate might seem ridiculous, but Shine says it\u2019s hard to see underwater. It \u201cseems that snakes find it hard to distinguish objects, so they approach anything interesting so that they can tongue-flick it to obtain more reliable scent cues.\u201d As for the encounters involving female sea snakes, the scientists believe it\u2019s yet another case of mistaken identity: The females are simply looking for a place to hide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new paper is really great, but I\u2019ve got a couple of nit-picks. I\u2019m sure the data is fine, but having multiple scuba divers collect the field study data would\u2019ve been a good idea. Something about Lynch\u2019s personal swimming style or physical form may have somehow altered the sea snake behavior. Having more recent data to work with would\u2019ve also been ideal, as observation techniques, among other aspects, may have improved over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That said, the study provides an important lesson, as the findings could literally save a scuba diver\u2019s life. As the paper points out, divers who \u201cflee from snakes may inadvertently mimic the responses of female snakes to courtship, encouraging males to give chase,\u201d so to \u201cprevent escalation of encounters, divers should keep still and avoid retaliation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Excerpted from<\/em> https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/venomous-snake-chasing-you-through-the-ocean-just-wants-1847516301<\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"