That's just a poor harmless old jungle python. We got a few of them in 'Nam. I recall one we found being about 11½ feet (3.5M) long.
I was under the impression, the original BS "Earhart wreck" story, was talking about a 6M sea snake. One that size would truly fall into the old "sea-serpent" category.
Even the ABC news (Aust) has picked up on the story. Perhaps the ABC journos turn to PPRUNE on slow days...
Claims aviation pioneer Earhart's plane found in PNG - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
I seem to recall that sea snakes aren't too big at all, but their venom is dynamite. I recall a prawning boat deckhand, off the Abrolhos, many years ago, was helping clean out the net... and the deckies found a smallish sea snake, in with the assortment of deep-sea critters, in the net.
Deckhand who found it, dragged it out, bashed it to death, with suitable epithets, such as "take that, you c$#&!"... and tossed the dead snake aside on the deck. The first-mentioned deckhand decided to take a look-see at said snake, up close and personal.
The snake had been bashed on the head, and its venom was oozing out. The bloke who picked it up for a close look-see, had a cut on his hand... and some of the venom got into the cut.
Within minutes, he "wasn't feeling too good"... and he promptly keeled over. Result was a panicky medevac to hospital, where he had to be administered a good dose of sea-snake anti-venene.
I understand this particular bloke has a healthy aversion to sea-snakes, right about now.
The docs reckoned he was one lucky lad. Apparently, in their opinion, if he'd been left without medical attention for much longer, he'd have been a goner.