Venomous Pacific snake washes onto Hawaii shores

By Craig Desilva

For The Tribune

HONOLULU (PIDP/CPIS) — Hawaii prides itself with being snake-free.

There is an indigenous snake that is non-venomous. But it hardly looks like a snake. It’s blind and resembles a large earthworm.

And occasionally a brown tree snake from Guam will find its way onto the cargo of a plane coming into Hawai’i.

So when a group of schoolchildren on the Windward side of O’ahu found a sea snake on the beach at Ka’a’awa this week, the discovery caused some excitement. The find was especially important since the snake can be deadly.

“I’ve seen other snakes on the (U.S.) mainland, but this is the first time I found a snake in Hawai’i,” said Scott Waracka, a 15-year-old student from Kalaheo High School.

Waracka and a bunch of his friends stumbled upon the snake, which had washed ashore.

One of the children, 10-year-old Busa Barbour of Ka’a’awa Elementary School, picked it up and threw the one-and-a-half-foot long snake back into the ocean. But when the kids returned to the beach later that day, the snake was still near the shore lying idle.

“It was alive, but it didn’t move too much,” Waracka said. “When we scooped it up with a net, the snake bit the net and wouldn’t let it go.”

The yellow-bellied sea snake (Pelamis platurus) has been taken to the Waikiki Aquarium, where it is being nursed back to health.

The snake is originally found throughout parts of the Asia-Pacific region, mainly in the South Pacific near the equator. It is the most widespread snake species in the Pacific. But the snakes are rare in Hawai’i.

“We only find them about every five to 15 years in the Hawaiian Islands, depending on debris and how the currents are going,” said Jerry Crow, a research associate at the Waikiki Aquarium. “They float in large patches of drift material like logs or big trees that wash offshore.”

The snake probably got caught in a wave current that developed from strong north winds, he said.

“They are more common during the El Niño time, so it’s a little surprising to see it in Hawai’i this time of year. But the storms can cause the floating debris that they stay in to come farther north of the Pacific. When this happens, there is always the potential of reaching the Hawaiian islands.”

Crow said there are other species of sea snakes that are commonly found in the warm waters of the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.

“Some of them come ashore and lay eggs and they live on land as well as the water. They can be found right along the shoreline,” he added.

The snake that was found in Hawai’i is mainly aquatic. Its paddle-shaped tail helps it to swim. Its V-shaped belly resembles a keel on a boat, which also helps it to mobilize in the water.

“It’s never a good idea to pick up a yellow-bellied sea snake. It’s a good thing no one got bitten because there is no anti-venom on the island. The venom is very powerful and it can make you sick. If you were to get a full dose, you could possibly die from it,” he said.

Crow said the snakes shouldn’t be handled without wearing gloves.

This is not the first time a sea snake has been found in Hawai’i. Several were found during the end of the El Niño weather period in 1999. All of the snakes eventually died.

Crow said the Waikiki Aquarium will be caring for the snake. If it survives, the snake will be put on display.

“There are some cuts and abrasions on the body, so we need to see how active it gets,” he said.

Crow said the snakes don’t bother humans very much unless they are disturbed. But he said the snakes are smart predators in Pacific waters.

“They are great ambush hunters. They lay within the debris with a lot of leaves and branches and wait until a fish comes by,” he said.