Snorkelling grandmothers uncover large population of venomous sea snakes

October 25, 2019 9:33 AM

No ordinary grandmas or snakes here. A group of snorkelling grandmothers who swim up to 3km five days a week have uncovered a large population of venomous sea snakes in a bay in the Baie des Citrons, Noumea where scientists once believed they were rare. (SLGuardian)
posted by wicked_sassy (7 comments total)

"Great snorkelling grannies!!" would be an excellent exclamation of shock or surprise - especially, say, when one encounters venomous sea snakes.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:48 AM on October 25, 2019 [14 favorites]

That's a lot of fit grannies, that photo in sillouhette you wouldn't be able to guess any adult age properly. It's great that these folks have helped make some discoveries that professional outfits would need a budget and grant to do themselves.
posted by GoblinHoney at 10:04 AM on October 25, 2019

"Great snorkelling grannies, Batgran!!" you mean...
posted by Windopaene at 10:15 AM on October 25, 2019 [3 favorites]

I thought this was going to be about the Japanese ama divers - worth reading about if you’ve never heard of them. They’re female freedivers who collect pearls, well into old age. They appeared in Japan with Sue Perkins recently and I’ve never seen a more chill, happy group of people in my life.
(That’s an iplayer link, it’s hard to find anything more universal but there is this Facebook clip.)
posted by penguin pie at 1:31 PM on October 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

This works well with my hobby of adding "...and doomed us all" to the end of science headlines.
posted by Horkus at 5:38 PM on October 25, 2019 [5 favorites]

I got so angry at the characterization of these women by their reproductive status... until I read the article and discovered they called themselves ‘the fantastic grandmothers’.
posted by archy at 6:00 AM on October 26, 2019 [3 favorites]

I thought this was going to be about the Japanese ama divers - worth reading about if you’ve never heard of them.

I thought this might be about the Haenyeo, whose diving prowess was the backbone of their small Korean island's semi-matriarchal society. Also worth reading about!
posted by soy bean at 11:19 AM on October 28, 2019