sea snake

Antivenom is also given to the Royal Flying Doctors, who access some of the nation's most remote communities, as well as Australian navy and cargo ships for sailors at risk of sea snake bites.

There are more than 400 species comprising a very diverse group of snakes such as mambas, cobras, kraits, taipans, tiger snakes, death adders, sea snakes and coral snakes.

"The python would have found the water to be extremely cold, and the only snakes that should be in the ocean are sea snakes."

But in the statement he said sea snakes had "writhed in agony" and marine life had suffered after some 25,000 litres of condensate leaked from an underwater hose.

You can see some of the surprising new finds on the citizen science project Redmap, such as sightings of the tropical yellow bellied sea snake in Tasmanian waters.