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| Christopher Dornan saw the yellow-bellied sea snake at Alexander Bay. (Supplied: Christopher Dornan) |
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Yet an expert has confirmed the reptile spotted by the Esperance teacher on the chilly shores of Alexander Bay was indeed a yellow-bellied sea snake — marking the first verified record of a living sea snake in the area.
While reptile enthusiast Brian Bush — a man with no formal qualifications, but whose passion for reptiles has seen several snakes named in his honour — said he saw three sea snakes washed ashore during the decade he spent in the region, all of them were dead.
But sea snake research scientist, Blanche D'Anastasi of James Cook University, said it could be a sign of things to come, as warming ocean temperatures advance sea snake distributions globally.
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| Map: The sea snake was at Alexander Bay, about 100 kilometres east of Esperance ©Mapbox |
While they initially thought it was a moray eel, he said the tail looked decidedly like a sea snake.
"We didn't know whether it was cold and had come out of the water to get warm or was stuck up on the high tide mark," Mr Dornan said.
"We poked it a little bit to see if it was okay, and it sort of slithered a bit, but it didn't seem able to move towards the ocean."While he said they debated over moving it back into the sea, they were wary of its famously venomous bite.
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| The sea snake was spotted at Alexander Bay, about 100km east of Esperance. (Supplied: Christopher Dornan) |
Mr Dornan said he was also surprised to see the creature near such temperate waters, with oceans in the region dropping as low as 13 degrees Celsius at this time of year.
"I'd never heard of a sea snake being down here before. It's very odd," he said."Both my wife and my friend, we've lived up north and they grew up there in the Pilbara and the Kimberley.
"They were used to seeing sea snakes in the water and a couple of times on the beach and they always looked pretty feisty.
"But this one looked a little bit more sedate; it didn't look quite as happy."
Surfing its way down the WA coastline
Ms D'Anastasi said she had never heard of a sea snake sighting near Esperance before, even though WA was a global hotspot for sea snake diversity, with nine endemic species.
She said the most similar incident on record was of an olive sea snake sighting 580km away at Albany in 2013.
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The weird, wonderful, worrying world of sea snakes  |
"For a little sea snake to make it all the way down the south coast and then trek along the line to Esperance is really interesting."
Mr Bush said he had never encountered a sea snake that made it to the area alive.
"I was on the Esperance sand plains for 10 years and probably in that time three [dead ones] turned up," he said.
Ms D'Anastasi believes the creature had surfed the Leeuwin current down the coast of WA, but was most likely in poor condition when it washed ashore.
"Occasionally if they're unwell they'll strand themselves because they're afraid of drowning," she said."It's possible that this little snake floated down in a current and then has been unwell and has stranded in Esperance."
Ms D'Anastasi said once ashore, sea snakes were at greatest risk of predation from birds and dehydration.
She recommended that anyone who came across a stranded sea snake should place a bowl of fresh water nearby to ward off the latter.
But given the animals are highly venomous, she urged the public to be cautious and call a wildlife carer as soon as possible.
Sea snake sighting in Tasmania
Ms D'Anastasi's tips could be worth jotting down as warming oceans are set to expand the distribution of the world's 70 species of sea snakes.
She said the yellow-bellied sea snake had the largest distribution of any sea snake and was notorious for surfing the world's oceanic currents, with one even found alive in Tasmania.
During the recent El Nino weather conditions Ms D'Anastasi said sea snakes were spotted in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in 20–30 years.
She urged anyone who found a sea snake in Australia to record it on the Australian Sea Snakes Facebook page, where the information would be submitted to national records databases and become publicly available.
"As the climate warms we will see sea snakes spread further south," Ms D'Anastasi said.
"There is some early evidence that sea snakes are occurring in cold, temperate waters with increasing frequency."
Although that could see the deadly creature in Esperance waters more often, Mr Dornan said it would be unlikely to deter the locals.
"A few of the guys at school surf, and they were just laughing saying it's another reason to stay out of the water," he said.
"But none of them seem to — they're all back in there!"
Links
- Six animal species and how they are affected by climate change
- Some animals can adapt to climate change—just not fast enough
- Climate is changing faster than animal adaptation
- The Effects of Climate Change Might Make Spiders Angry, According to New Study
- A growing need for species to adapt to a changing world
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