EVERY year 80 tonnes of venomous sea snakes are harvested in the Gulf of Thailand, but it’s a dangerous business and the snakes might be threatened.
Each month, fishermen in the Gulf of Thailand risk their lives harvesting live sea snakes. It’s risky for both parties: the snakes are in danger of being over-harvested and the fishermen could get bitten.
Scientists are now calling for a monitoring program to assess the impact the on-going trade will have on their population numbers and to look at how it affects the ecosystem.
A team reports in the journal Conservation Biology that fishermen have noticed a decline in their population since 2009. The researchers now want to understand if this is because of overfishing or other factors such as pollution.
The fishermen fish for squid with nets and hooks, and at the same time pick up hundreds of deadly sea snakes. The snakes have particularly potent venoms, which can be lethal.
Most of the fishing occurs at night, in small boats with crews of seven to 25. They use the luminous light of electric lamps to attract the squids. These lights are also believed to appeal to the snakes, which are fished out of the water at the same time.
The trade has grown considerably. About 20 years ago there were only 20-30 fishing vessels hunting for sea snakes. Today there are about 700 and each year they bring in 80 tonnes of sea snakes. Over seven different species are routinely caught, but most of the catch is Hardwick’s sea snakes and black-banded sea snakes.
At shore the snakes are quickly weighed and sorted by size. A typical merchant can categorise 20-30 kg of snake in a few minutes.
Given that a small snake weighs about 500g, they may sort through 60 live snakes in less than five minutes, using only their bare hands.
