Description

Also known as Banded Sea Snake, Egg-eating Sea Snake, Ringed Sea Snake, Ringed Turtlehead Sea Snake, Snake Eel, Turtlehead Sea Snake.

Found singly, or in groups during the day, in shallow waters foraging for food by moving slowly across burrows and crevices, around coral heads, over coral and rocky reefs.
They feed on fish eggs mainly from bennies, damselfishes and gobies.
Length - 90cm
Depth - 1-15m
Widespread North West Atlantic, Mediterranean, Indo-West Pacific

Although venomous these sea snakes have such small mouths they are not really a danger to divers.

Sea snakes have a slat excreting gland under their tongues which helps to avoid excess salt accumulation. They also shed their skin every two to six weeks, more frequently than land snakes. they do this by rubbing their lips against coral or other hard substrate to loosen the skin which is then anchored to the substrate as the snake slowly crawls forward, leaving the skin inside out and left behind. By shedding their skin sea snakes rid themselves of organisms such as algae, barnacles and bryozoans. (Heatwole 1999). Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emydocephalus_annulatus