You may have noticed that our website features products made
from snakeskin.
Our snakeskin products are taken from the sea snake or Hardwick's sea
snake. This particular snake belongs to the group of sea snakes the
hydrophiids. They are extremely venomous snakes, with their venom particularly
acting on the human nervous system. This characteristic is similar to that
of the cobras. Because of this, there have been suggestions that there may
be a relation between the cobras and the sea snakes.
Trivia:
The fangs of Hardwick's sea snake are 3.3mm long and they deliver
a double dose of neurotoxins lethal to humans!
 Diet & habitat
Hardwick's sea snake are found along the shores of the Indian
Ocean and the Gulf of Thailand. They can also be found in Australia's Tropical
north, from Brisbane in Queensland, right around the coast to Broome in Western
Australia. They are also found in the Indochinese Sea.
Hardwick's sea snake
eat mainly fish and sometimes squids and cuttlefish. They are general feeders.
They can co-exist with other types of sea-snakes but tend to have dominant
roles when existing with other sea snakes. Like other sea snakes, they are
active during the day, going out to hunt, to mate or have offspring.
Theses snakes live near coral reefs, estuaries and reproduce
annually. The females become sexually mature at 2 years and they give birth
to 3 offspring at one time. The offspring are born live, not like their land
counterparts which hatch their offspring from eggs.
Behaviour
The snakes usually are the
by-product of commercial fishing. They get caught in the trawler fishing-nets
of the fishermen. It is a very dangerous thing when fishermen have to sort
out the catch. Hardwick's sea snake are very cranky when out of the water.
Another fact is that Hardwick's sea snake cannot move very well on land or
out of the water which adds to the cranky behaviour. That is why it is known
to be aggressive.
Although
they live in the water, they do not have gills like fish, they have lungs and
need to surface to breath.
Fatalities occur because most fishermen do not have the right
knowledge. These fishermen rely on traditional folk medicine. Added to that,
there is no ready access to the antidote. The poor fishermen are the
most known fatalities as a result.
Other characteristics
Hardwick's sea snakes are not very long nor very big, they
grow to about 1 meter long. This is an example that size has nothing to do
with how dangerous a snake can be.
Other characteristics of Hardwick's sea snake are the following:
They average 1 meter in length. The
body is somewhat flattened laterally and the tail is shaped somewhat like
an oar (scull). The colour of the snake is divided into two parts, the top
may be black or dark brown and the under part yellow. The snakeskin gives
the leather a beautiful grain for exotic
leather products.
Sea snakes are in the class of Hydrophiidae; they have the following
interesting characteristics. They have very small fine scales (thus a very fine
leather grain) that overlap little or not at all with one another. This makes
swimming backwards or forwards very convenient. The spinal column is quite
weak because they are not made to move on land. The cloaca (where waste matter
exits) is closed airtight when diving (of course). The nostrils have valves
to seal water out and contain spongy, erectile tissue. The nostrils are located
on top of the snout.
A special mention of the nostrils: the positioning
of the nostrils is important because it enables the snake to take quick breaths
without raising its head out of the water. These snakes are food for preying
birds and it is dangerous for the snake to expose itself above the water surface.
Sea snakes can remain under water for 30 minutes up to several hours. The lungs
extends from the cloaca and functions for oxygen distribution (respiratory) and also for balance in the water.
It is estimated that approximately 1/5th of the oxygen demand is absorbed through the skin and that virtually all of the carbon dioxide can be eliminated in the same way, too. Since snakes are cold-blooded animals, oxygen demand is 7 times lower than of warm-blooded animals of the same weight. Experts
have not found any evidence of accumulation of lactic acid in
the blood (lactate acidosis) as a result of long dives.
The lung is thin and elongated and shows
specialized compartments. The tracheal
lung has numerous blood vessels for gas exchange exclusively. It issues into
the bronchial lung, which also contains many blood vessels. The terminus
is the saccular lung, which has very little blood vessels and is used for
storing air. The wall of this particular lung is very muscular.
These snakes avoid diving into the deep
and tend to stay where the temperature is
18°C.
To avoid bends when rising rapidly, they dive again quickly after drawing
air, so that nitrogen does not have enough time to form gas bubbles in the
blood. They also excrete a part of the nitrogen from their skin. There is
also a remarkable channelling of blood around the lungs: as much as 75% of the blood is pumped from the heart into the pulmonary artery that does not
go through the lungs.
Leather
As mentioned above, the scales are very
small. This makes it a featured look of exotic
leather. The small patterns,
where the scales used to grow, and the texture define the grain of the leather.
Of course, the grain being a very important feature of leather. Snakeskin
leather is light to the touch, rich and luxurious. It is also rare as the
sea snake is not actively hunted, making it more valuable.
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