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Description |
Geographic Range [top]
Range Description: This species distribution ranges from the northern coast of Australia to the South China Sea and includes the Gulf of Thailand (Tu 1974), Indonesia, western Malaysia, Viet Nam, and Papua New Guinea (Minton 1975).
Countries occurrence:
Native:
Australia; Cambodia; China; Indonesia; Malaysia; New Caledonia; Papua New Guinea; Philippines; Singapore; Thailand; Viet Nam
FAO Marine Fishing Areas:
Native:
Indian Ocean – eastern; Pacific – northwest; Pacific – western central
Additional data:
? Lower depth limit (metres): 50
Range Map: Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.
Population [top]
Population: This species has a patchy distribution. There has been a regional population decline in the Shoalwater Bay area (Australia) from foot surveys (C. Limpus pers. comm. 2009).
This species was seasonally abundant as trawler bycatch in western Malaysia in 1989 (Stuebing and Voris 1990). This is also the case in the Gulf of Carpentaria (D. Milton pers. comm. 2009). Also captured in the eastern prawn trawl fisheries in Australia (makes up 2 % of the sea snake catch) (Courtney et al. 2010). In Madura Straits (East Java, Indonesia), this species comprised 14 out of 256 bycaught snakes collected over ten days in June 2010 (K. Sanders and Mumpuni pers. comms.).
Current Population Trend: Unknown
Additional data:
? Population severely fragmented: No
Habitat and Ecology [top]
Habitat and Ecology: This species is common in estuaries and shallow bays and is most commonly associated with mud substrata but may rarely be found over harder substrata (Limpus 1975). It may swim upstream in rivers (Limpus 1975). It occurs in turbid waters from 0-50 m. This species typically feeds on benthic fish eggs but has also been recorded taking an eel (Voris 1972). This is the smallest sea snake found in the prawn trawl fisheries on the northeastern coast of Australia (T. Courtney pers. comm. 2009).
Systems: Freshwater; Marine
Threats [top]
Major Threat(s): This species is caught as bycatch by trawlers (Stuebing and Voris 1990).
Conservation Actions [top]
Conservation Actions: There are no species-specific conservation measures in place. No sea snake species is currently listed by CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
Sea snakes are protected in Australia since their addition to the ‘Listed Marine Species’ by the Department of Environment and Water Resources in 2000. They are protected in Australia under the Environment Protection Biodiversity and Conservation Act 1999. This requires that all Australian industries interacting with protected species, directly or indirectly, demonstrate sustainability for the species impacted by their activities (Milton et al. 2008). The Australian Fisheries Management Act 1991 requires fishing efforts to avoid captures of threatened and protected species such as sea snakes.
A conservation recommendation is to reduce the number of individuals caught as bycatch in the prawn trawl fishery using appropriate exclusion devices within nets (Courtney et al. 2010).
Citation: Guinea, M., Lukoschek, V., Milton, D., Courtney, T., Fletcher, E. & White, M.-D. 2010. Aipysurus eydouxii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T176757A7298462. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-4.RLTS.T176757A7298462.en. Downloaded on 10 October 2018.
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