For example, one of the rarest snakes found in California, the third yellow bellied sea snake in four months found on beach.
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The sighting was reported on Tuesday, January 12 at around 2:30 p.m., and it involved a 20-inch reptile, which died nearly immediately after being placed in a bucket by a local lifeguard.
A third highly venomous sea snake has washed ashore in California far from its typically tropical habitat, the latest sign that warming Pacific waters associated with El Niño are delivering more than just much needed rainfall to the parched state.
Greg Pauly, a herpetologist at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, has previously noted that all the other yellow-bellied snakes found along the California’s coast have been found during El Niño years.
At the direction of California Department of Fish and Game officials, it will be given to Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The sea creature comes with a vivid yellow at its bottom and a flat, paddle-like tail with black spots. The venomous sea snake washed ashore on a beach in Coronado.
Though they are not aggressive towards people, if they bite then their venom can prove deadly. Interestingly, several sea snakes have also washed up along the coast of New South Wales in Australia where they are also not normally seen.
This one was found by a beachgoer on Tuesday, on the Coronado Dog Beach near San Diego. The picture shows the snake was found not far from a lifeguard tower.
UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, Paul Barber, told the Huffington Post after the first sea snake was discovered back in October that the snakes have arrived “because the warmer El Niño conditions have expanded the range of suitable environmental conditions for this snake”.
Scientists find this sudden boost in yellow-bodied sea snake sightings to be fairly surprising, but they do have a theory to account for the sightings. Although they are highly venomous, their targets are small fish and it’s thought they have yet to cause a recorded human death.
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Getting closer to the Californian shore was initially most likely caused by the warmer waters, but snake probably reached the shore because it got dragged in by stronger currents than those to which it was used.
