ABSTRACT
Sea snakes are a diverse group of marine or aquatic front fanged venomous snakes, widely distributed from the East coast of Africa to the West coast of the Americas. The sea snakes are proteroglyphous venomous reptiles, principally inhabiting the marine environment, though a few species are found in estuaries or even in fresh water lakes, the latter thought to have had previous connections to the sea. The majority of bites occur in men engaged in fishing, particularly using drag nets and gape nets, and also hook line methods, while drive-in nets, palisade traps, lift nets and falling nets seem less likely to entrap sea snakes. The specific effects of sea snake toxins are those of myolysis and neurotoxic paralysis. It is important to remember that anxiety is a common early sequelae of sea snakebite, producing typical symptomatology, which is independent of envenoming, and will occur in many cases where no envenoming has occurred.
