A second yellow-bellied sea snake washed ashore Huntington Beach, far from its natural habitat, last week thanks to the warm waters caused by El Niño. (Lisa Gonzalez/Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County)
From toxic algal blooms to abnormal weather patterns, the side effects of this season’s Godzilla El Niño have begun to show in the Pacific. And just last week, another bizarre breakthrough hit close to home when a second venomous sea snake washed ashore in Huntington Beach, which is hundreds of miles from the species’ usual habitat.
During a Surfrider Foundation beach cleanup, organizers stumbled upon a dead 27-inch yellow bellied sea snake, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Back in October, a 2-foot-long sea snake of the same species washed ashore at Ventura County’s Silver Strand State Beach. That one was alive, though it died shortly after being taken to a local U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office.
The species, known to scientists as Pelamis Platura, is native to typically tropical waters around the world, excluding the Atlantic Ocean. The first time it was ever spotted on a Southern California beach was back in the El Niño season of 1972 and in San Clemente. It’s expected that the warm waters caused by El Niño’s overactivity around the equator sends the snakes North of their normal habitats.
Though they are poisonous, there has never been a reported death to a human from the snakes. Still, if you encounter one in the wild, it’s not advised to pick it up.
“Their fangs are tiny and they can barely open their mouths wide enough to bite a person,” Greg Pauly, herpetological curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, told the Times. “So, unless you pick one up, the biggest safety concern with going to the beach is with driving there and then driving home.”
