A “deadly” sea snake has washed onto a beach with a warning from a reptile expert for the public never to touch them.
Drew Godfrey, of Hervey Bay Snake Catchers, told how “alarm bells” started ringing when he heard that an adult sea snake had reached the shore in Torquay, Queensland.
He had received a call that an injured, adult olive-headed sea snake had been found in the latest sighting this year, it is reported.
It is not unusual to discover sea snakes washed up on the beaches of Queensland but what made it different was that it was an adult.
Rough weather at sea is often the reason why the younger snakes are thrown towards the coast.
"This has been the third since the start of the season," Mr Godfrey told 9news.com.
"Rough seas typically impact the juvenile animals but this one was an adult, which screams alarm bells. It was quite malnourished. I don't think it has eaten in months and there was something constricting it - possibly old skin from a past shedding."
He is now aiming to take the snake to Australia Zoo for assessment and treatment but he admitted that having given it a swimming test he “wasn’t very optimistic”.
The reptile expert also told people to never approach snakes that they may find on beaches as they are highly poisonous and touching them is also likely to injure the snake.
"First, sea snakes are deadly venomous. Even though sea snakes generally don't bite, when injured and scared, any snake - regardless of its normal behaviour - is more likely to bite if you approach it," Godfrey said.
But he also said that touching sea snakes can easily be harmful to the reptile.
"Second, sea snakes are not built to be out of the water. Their bodies are too heavy for their bones and handling a sea snake incorrectly can fatally damage the snake by separating its vertebrae," he said.
"Last reason to not pick on up or throw it back is because they are never meant to be on land. If they're on land there is some kind of problem and it will require medical assessment before being released."
