Vanuatu: Coral Sea Snakes
While snorkeling at the Champagne Beach on the Espiritu Santo island we spotted a coral sea snake. These are common in the warm oceans of the Pacific Ocean, and in fact, are some of the most poisonous, if not the most, snakes in the world. They are usually 1-1.5m (3-5 ft) long, have distinctive black and white rings and small heads. The snakes are completely aquatic and their tail acts as a rudder and the bodies are often laterally compressed, helming them to swim. When it comes to venom, this guys have more toxic venom than any terrestrial snake on the planet, but they very rarely bite humans (the last two instances in the pacific were in 1935 and 2018), partially because the fangs sit rather deep in their heads and don’t retract easily. As such, you can snorkel with them relatively safely.
