An Australian surfer has been fined for taking his pet snake out to sea with him.

Higor Fiuza caused a stir on Australia’s Gold Coast after footage emerged of him carving through the waves while carrying Shiva, his pet carpet python.

Fining the man AUS $2,300 (£1,200),  authorities said he endangered the life of the snake and did not possess a permit to take the reptile out in public.

“To take an animal out in public or display it requires a separate permit,” Queensland’s department of environment and science said on Monday.

“Snakes are obviously cold-blooded animals, and while they can swim, reptiles generally avoid water.

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

Carpet pythons are non-venomous snakes that can grow up to 10ft long.

They mostly eat birds, lizards and other small mammals, killing them by coiling their bodies round their prey and suffocating them.