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Snakes are everywhere down here in Florida. This hot and swampy landscape is truly the perfect climate for the reptiles to thrive. So when a co-worker sent me this clip below of a chunky Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake swimming around in the Florida Keys saltwater I wasn’t shocked. But then I saw how this video was getting spread like wildfire and figured I should share it with you bros.
The Eastern Diamondback is the largest venomous species of snake in the United States, and it’s one that you can find throughout Florida. I’ve only encountered a handful of them throughout the years and it was mostly on secluded roads and not even on camping trips. But they’re around, and as you can see in this video these snakes get around.
The video was shared on an Islamorada Facebook page (and on WSBTV). If the Facebook video below isn’t showing up/working for you then you can access it directly on Facebook by following that link:
Rattlesnakes pretty much like to be left alone. This one seemed to be trying to swim toward the fishing boat, probably because it was tired of swimming and saw the boat as a way to get some rest. But you’d have to be a crazy MoFo in order to let a rattlesnake come crawling up on your boat.
The first time I ever came across one of these snakes in the wild was in Sarasota. We accidentally drove over one with the car because we didn’t see it on the road. So we doubled back and crept along the street to try and find the snake after it slithered into the tall grass next to the street (this was in a neighborhood). I was hanging out of the passenger side window looking for it when I hear that insanely loud rattle go nuts and I shit you not I almost jumped out of my seat, across the car, and through the driver’s side window. I’ve never been more startled of anything in my life. That rattle triggers a primal instinct. You hear it and your body knows ‘danger’. It’s pretty wild.