Afraid of snakes? Particularly the venomous ones? Rightfully so.  The venom of this little pet – a banded or yellow-lipped sea krait (laticauda colubrina) – contains strong neurotoxins and myotoxins. It attacks your nerves and muscles. Hence show respect.

However, this species of sea snakes is not aggressive. On one dive in the Philippines we did some scuba training exercises including hovering and pivoting in a “sandpit” beside a reef at about 3-4 meters depth. All of a sudden, the group started pointing and waiving at my legs – from a safe distance ;-).  It turned out that a banded krait thought it is interesting to wiggle between and around my legs. I just stopped moving and stayed calm. A few seconds later the snake left. Unfortunately, nobody else in our group had a camera to take a shot of this funny scene.

The banded sea krait has a fishy brother, which mimics the krait’s look. It’s myrichthys colubrinus, the harlequin or banded snake eel, which is a non-venomous fish. I think I’ll share a photo of it  with you in my next post.

So how did I get the shot below?

Although banded kraits are said to be nocturnal, this one scavenged the reef during daytime. I set the aperture to f/10 at 1/100s shutter speed. For lighting the scene, I used one flash on a medium-length arm from above.

I followed the snake as it moved around the reef. Rather than trying to out-swim it, I tried to out-smart it by guessing its next move and therefore positioning the camera on its way, before it actually made the turn. With this approach I always able to keep a safe distance and let the snake decide, whether to come closer to the lens or not. Sea snakes are active hunters and they move with quite some speed, so you need to have your gear ready for the shot.

So are you still afraid of sea snakes? – You shouldn’t. But as with any other (venomous) animal: It is always a good idea to show respect.

Devilfish (inimicinae) are venomous fish. They belong to the family of stonefish (synanceiidae). This one is stretching its ‘legs’.

Not so you think? Fish have fins! Check out the pectoral fins (first pair on the belly side) – two of their rays are detached from the fins. They are used by the fish to walk on the ground – like legs.

If you zoom into the photo, you’ll also notice that this grumpy pal has just had its lunch.

Here is the story for the photo:

I was searching a sea cucumber for emperor shrimps (imperator periclimenes) on a sandy ground. There was no sign of anything around the sea cucumber, so I put one elbow gently on the sandy ground to stabilize the camera for the macro shot. I took about 3 photos. Suddenly there was a dust cloud right between me and the sea cucumber – and there it was this amazing devil fish. It started walking around and I followed suit.

Luckily enough I had quickly reconfigured the camera and flashes immediately after the creature emerged. So when it stretched – which didn’t take longer than about 2 seconds – I was able to capture the pose above.

This shot was taken on the Philippines at one of the dive spots of the Pintuyan Dive Resort.