Collection, conservation and systematisation of venomous sea snakes

Collection, conservation and systematisation of venomous sea snakes

Associate professor, PhD Arne Redsted Rasmussen, School of Conservation, Copenhagen

Sea snakes are the most numerous and have the widest distribution of all the World’s venomous reptiles. Sea snakes are found in tropical and subtropical marine areas in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. Most species are concentrated in Southeast Asia and the regions of Oceania. Sea snakes are found, with great variation in numbers and structure of species in shallow waters along the coasts, in rivers and estuaries and around islands. At a higher genera level, sea snakes are most closely related with terrestrial elapidae, which encompass some of the most venomous snakes in the World (the Australian venomous snakes, cobras, mambas, kraits and coral snakes). At the present time, we have scientific descriptions of more than 60 species of sea snakes. The venom from sea snakes is very strong. Scientific research using the measuring unit of “LD50” show that sea snakes have the most deadly venom per unit found in any snakes. The bite of sea snakes therefore causes numerous fatalities in Asia. At the current time, approximately 4 million people are bitten by snakes in Asia every year, and 100,000 of them die (Chippaux, 1998: World Health Organization. This figure is considered an underestimate). We do not currently know which percentage of these fatalities that are caused by sea snake bites, but we do know that sea snake bites cause fatalities in all Asian countries. By participating in the Galathea 3 expedition, we gain the opportunity to explore some of the most venomous animals in the World, with a view to obtaining information on their distribution, way of life, genera relationships and epidemiology.