Stoke's Sea Snake

Astrotia stokesii

This is the large species of snake found in Indo-Pacific oceanic waters. They are distributed in Sri Lanka and Pakistan to South China Sea and Strait of Taiwan and are native to the Philippines and other Asian countries. This species were enable to live in various types of habitats. They usually occur around reefs and in harbours over mud and sand substrate. They hunt food in coral reef areas and target small fishes like gobies and juvenile stonefishes. This snake sometimes forms migrating groups in thousands, drifting in meter-long slicks in the Strait of Malacca. They are ovoviviparous (live-bearing) producing small broods of five young each mating season. Though they are aggressive with a venomous bite, there are no reported fatalities attributed to this coral snake.

Identification

This is one of the heaviest and stoutest sea snake, with the longest fangs of any marine snake. The fang is long enough to pierce a wetsuit. They are variable in color ranging from cream to brown to black often with broad black dorsal cross bands and black rings. They reached up to 1.5m (5 feet).