Diver Breaks Up Mortal Combat Between Deadly Sea Stonefish Snake

Trippe says the sea snake was approximately 2 meters (6.5 feet) long.
Rick Trippe

If an average person happened upon the world’s most poisonous snake and the world’s most poisonous fish engaged in battle, stepping between them would probably be the last idea to come to mind. Leaving the area and trying to find a change of underpants would be more likely.


But for experienced diver and fisherman Rick Trippe of Darwin, Australia, breaking up such a deadly struggle of nature didn’t even require a second thought.

The Australian realtor with a passion for being on the water (pictured above) found a sea snake and stonefish fighting each other during a Thursday trip in Darwin Harbor. He separated them with his own two hands and set them both free.

The photos he posted of the encounter on his Facebook pagequickly went viral, netting him emails from around the globe that probably contain phrases like “Are you insane?!?”

Trippe told CNET’s Crave blog that he and a friend had just “up-anchored from an old World War II wreck and were feeling pretty chuffed” about the fish they caught when he first noticed the sea snake.

“We were going to our next wreck when we saw something in the middle of the harbor but couldn’t make out what it says,” Trippe said. “So with curiosity, we motored over to find a massive sea snake. It was close to 2 meters (6.5 feet) long and thick. As we approached the sea snake, we saw that it had a stonefish in its mouth.”

Sea snakes and stonefish are classified as the most venomous members of their respective species. Sea snakes are actually docile — they “don’t want to touch humans” and don’t always inject venom when they bite, Trippe says — but he adds that their venom is “five times deadlier than a cobra’s.”

Diver Rick Trippe holds up a sea snake and a stonefish that he found fighting in Darwin Harbor.
Rick Trippe

Stonefish, also known as scorpion fish, inject their venom through the row of spines along their back. The stonefish’s venom can cause intense pain that may take up to two days to recover from and can be fatal if injected into a person’s chest or abdomen. Culled