| While I was turning my glance from the swimming | | | | of it. |
| German Praktikum (Internship) students in the | | | | I was scared of sea snakes which are venomous |
| southern direction of the western coastal beach | | | | and capable of killing a human being within just |
| shore, I saw number of tiny crabs. They were | | | | two hours. The internship students were still in the |
| very busy on the shiny beach searching food. | | | | sea and showed no sign of coming ashore. |
| When I started to move towards the restaurant | | | | I had heard of stories about this particular species |
| the crabs suddenly disappeared one by one into | | | | of snake, which fisherman occasionally sold as |
| little holes on the beach, which was their shelter. | | | | exotic eels when they accidentally get caught in |
| While walking towards the restaurant, a large | | | | their fishing nets. I have heard stories of its |
| wave struck against the shore passing me and | | | | powerful swimming with side-ward floating and |
| receded slowly. When the waves receded, a | | | | being the only sea snake extant on both sides of |
| moving object in the distance caught my eye. I | | | | the Pacific and having the distinction of having |
| wondered what it might be and rushed towards it | | | | reached the Hawaiian Islands other than its |
| before it disappeared into the sea. I found it | | | | habitats in the Indian ocean and its seas around |
| resembled a sea snake or a different variety of | | | | Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, India and Sri Lanka. |
| fish. At times it looked like a snake moving | | | | Though the yellow-bellied sea snakes are found |
| towards the sea in a snake-like glide. | | | | throughout coastal south eastern Asia, Indonesia, |
| Before I could get near it, a large wave rolled | | | | Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific |
| turbulently towards the shore and the moving | | | | Islands extending to the western coast of the |
| object disappeared with the wave into the deep | | | | Americas from Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands |
| ocean. The Indian Ocean is the home for some of | | | | north to Baja California and the Gulf of California |
| the deadliest sea snakes; the yellow-bellied sea | | | | is very common in the Sri Lankan seas. |
| snakes and the black sea snakes. These are | | | | A large wave interrupted my thought and the |
| widely scattered and more venomous than the | | | | water moved passing me towards the sand |
| rest. The yellow-bellied sea snake which resembles | | | | shore and observed again there was a tiny thing |
| an eel is often mistaken for an eel, accounting for | | | | moving with the returning waves. As I was close |
| several lives. But the yellow-bellied sea snake | | | | by this time I have noted that it was not a |
| rarely comes to the surface confining itself to the | | | | deadly sea snake but a dead-sea creature |
| seabed of the Indian Ocean. | | | | resembling a snake, but not even a fish. When I |
| I worried if it was a sea snake it might reach the | | | | went close and I found it was a cut-off part of a |
| students who were just a few meters in a few | | | | large cuddle fish's tail. |
| minutes' time by swimming on the surface with | | | | I heaved a sigh of relief. |
| side-ward movements with the help of its laterally | | | | My eye sight was turned towards the happily |
| compressed tail, which acts as a paddle. The | | | | bathing students in the waters of Indian Ocean. I |
| yellow-bellied sea snakes can move quickly by | | | | wondered whether they were aware of these |
| floating by ocean currents. | | | | tropical sea snakes. The yellow bellied sea snake |
| I stepped further towards sea, but it was a hard | | | | gripped my mind. I saw some time back a |
| task to discern what it was in the heavily moving | | | | documentary film either in the National Geographic |
| sea waves from the shore. Though my mind | | | | or Discovery channel when it was moving so |
| alerted me to quickly warn the students to come | | | | vivaciously and catching fish. It infuses its |
| out of the sea, I decided to watch the sea | | | | neurotoxin venom into the fish and will let it die or |
| surface and the shore for some time to | | | | partially paralysed and then swallowed it. |
| determine whether the object I saw was a live | | | | The fascinating and terrible way of living in the |
| or a dead snake or any other object. I was | | | | undersea marine world always makes me wonder. |
| watching the sea waves closely but saw no sign | | | | |