Is this a turtle head seasnake?

I am rubbish at IDing seasnakes. I only know the banded sea krait!

While I was away (and in m trip write up) I referred to this a a Turtlehead Seasnake. Is this correct?

Alex

he he ... the turtles head

Alex .. i believe the turtle head seasnake has a bill like a hawksbill turtle .. kinda top lip coming over the bottom lip.

can't see that on your photo .. the only other one i know is the olive sea snake ... but i dont think that has stripes quite as big as thaht .. thats al lmy knowledge .. but i wanted to throw it in there.

The Turtles Head, I was thinking like the digital wet fella... something very different indeed! Here is a close up of the same species, maybe even the same animal?

Sorry I can't help Alex but I saw one like that at Secret Bay. I picked up a burlap sack off the bottom, and there was one underneath. Quite a surprise!

Cheers

James

in a fine scottish brogue....

"ahh, theres a turtle head pokin out............."

hahah... Fat Bastard

Hey Alex,

I've just been contacted by a guy who seems to be the worlds expert on sea snakes, here is what he sent me about it:

This is a Filesnake (also called Wartsnake) of the genus Acrochordus.

This is NOT venomous, it is not a "sea snake", but an "aquatic snake". The species is either Little filesnake (Acrochordus granulatus) or Javan filesnake (Acrochordus javanicus). If you send me more pictures (head close-up from the side and top and an overall body image) with location (which island) information, then I can tell you with more confidence of which one of the two species - they are common is SE Asia. I enclose a few images of these species, so you can compare to the ones you seeing.

He is also keen to get more images, so maybe you want to contact him, I can send you his email address. One thing though wants to sue my photo's but has sent me a form that basically gives him rights to sue my image for what ever he wants for nothing, so your thoughts on this would be veyr much appreciated. There's no way I am giving away images to anyoen to use for themselves, it was originally just for a science thing, now it seems he wants rights for the images to use when ever he wants!

Very interesting snake ID Graham.

I think Graham knows just about everything about every sea creature in Indonesia........ B) ; or at least he has dove with someone who knows!!!

Very interesting Alex and Graham,

Best Carol