Aussie woman pictured 'playing with death' on beach holiday
Australian tourist Suzanne Parrish was oblivious to just how venomous the sea snake was as she posed for the camera.
An Australian woman is "very, very lucky to be alive" after her curiosity got the better of her, unwittingly picking up and posing with a venomous sea krait — a type of water snake that can kill up to 10 adults with a single bite.
Suzanne Parrish was on holiday with her family in New Caledonia — an island situated in the Pacific Ocean just 2,000 kilometres away from Sydney — when they spotted the "seemingly cute snake" on the beach. They stopped to take pictures and Parrish admits to even kissing the snake, only to later learn how narrowly she dodged catastrophe.
"I learnt how venomous they were when we went to a local museum that had information regarding the snake and how venomous it was," she told Yahoo News Australia.
'Dumb luck' saved tourist from death
Aussies were dumbfounded the woman had not only chosen to interact with the snake but also lived to tell the tale, believing "dumb luck" was the only reason she lived to laugh about it. Many suggested the general rule of 'don't know, don't touch' should be adopted when it comes to unfamiliar wildlife.
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The interaction occurred in 2017 but Parrish decided to share the images online this week to warn others and discourage them from making the same mistake as her.
"I joined the [Facebook] group a bit ago for funny posts and realised I had something relatable to share," she said about posting it to a group dedicated to deadly near-misses.
Sea snakes significantly more venomous than land snakes
Wildlife veterinary nurse Belinda Donovan has handled snakes for over 25 years and gasped when she saw the "shocking" image of Parrish, saying the young Aussie tourist was "playing with death".
"The sea krait that she actually picked up is known to be 10 times more toxic than that of a rattlesnake... They're fatal," the wildlife expert from Australia Seabird and Turtle Rescue told Yahoo News. "They're not aggressive and are only known to attack when feeling threatened, but obviously being handled is one of those situations where a krait would feel that way."
Sea krait venom attacks the nervous system of a victim and can result in convulsions, paralysis and cardiac failure.
Sea snakes in general are up to 10 times more venomous than land snakesBelinda Donovan, wildlife veterinary nurse with Australia Seabird and Turtle Rescue
Improper handling of a sea krait is a lose lose situation
Not only can an interaction be fatal for the human, improper handling of the sea krait can also be deadly for the snake as they can easily have their spine broken.
"Sea kraits have strongly and heavily adapted to water... Holding them upside down for just a short time can be fatal," Donovan said. "Just move away slowly. Do not touch them. Do not lift them...You can really injure yourself as well as the snake."
The last death in Australia from a sea krait was in 2018 when a 23-year-old man in the Northern Territory was bitten while handling a fishing net on a trawler.
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