More sea snakes could show up on New Zealand beaches in the future as climate change increases the likelihood of storms bringing them to our shores, the Department of Conservation says.
A yellow-bellied sea snake was spotted at Omaha Beach north of Auckland yesterday but, when DOC rangers arrived, it appeared to have been killed by a dog and “hit with something”.
Sea snakes generally live in warmer tropical waters to the north of the country, says DOC marine science advisor Karen Middlemiss.
“When you get storm events up there that are driving the oceans south, then they can get sort of flipped into different currents down here.”
As climate change brought more storms, that could mean more sea snakes washing up on New Zealand beaches.
“It’s probably quite a reasonable thing to expect to happen. You know, there are a lot of them out there, so it wouldn’t be a surprise at all.”
She said there was some confusion about the snakes being labelled as “native”.
“If an animal makes its way here to New Zealand waters on its own, then it’s considered native.”
They definitely were not breeding here, she added.
“The waters are far too cold, so when they do wash up on the beaches, they don’t survive very much longer than a couple of days.”
Middlemiss advised anyone who saw a sea snake or krait on the beach to keep their distance.
“If one did inject you with venom, it would be pretty catastrophic.”
Unless they were provoked, they would leave people alone, she said.
“The likelihood of getting bitten is very low. We’ve never had anybody that I’m aware of that has been bitten by one and died in New Zealand — or pets for that matter.”
The DOC marine science advisor has more advice, particularly for dog owners, in the video with this article.
