Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
UNDER THE SEA — At this point in my life, I'm not too sure what type of activities I'll be into when I grow old; but I can say with a reasonable bit of confidence that I won't be hunting venomous sea snakes.
Combined with the fact that snakes are being hunted in the dark and completely bare-handed?
I'm out.
Apparently, the 70-year-old duo of Yoko and Setsuko possess much more bravery than I do, considering they're the ones hunting these snakes on their tiny island home of Kudaka, off the southeast coast of Japan.
As the island is only 4 kilometers wide, island locals rely on the sea to provide — and that it does, in the form of sea snakes. At one time the ancestors of these snakes lived on dry land, over time evolving to thrive in a marine ecosystem (though they do have to surface to breathe).
As the sun sets over Kudaka, Yoko and Setsuko ready themselves for the hunt.
"On certain summer nights, venomous sea snakes move toward the island and gather in coastal caves, looking for shelter and fresh water to drink," the narrator of the video said.
What the snakes don't know, is that Yoko and Setsuko are quietly, patiently waiting for them to come on shore.
Once the snakes are out of the ocean and in one of the coastal waves, Yoko and Setsuko wade in with no protection — a terrifying feat considering the venom of coral reef snakes can be 10 times more powerful than that of a rattlesnake.
After being caught, the snakes are dried in a smokehouse using a "secret process" passed down to generations, based on five centuries of snake-hunting experience and known only by the hunters.
Eventually, the snakes are served in soup.
"The catching and eating of sea snakes is a very old tradition on the island of Kudaka, where the sea provides more than the land," the narrator says.
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