North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Hey fellas,

Long time no see! I’ve been in Qld for the last five years. Currently harassing fish out of a kayak on the Sunshine Coast. Surprisingly good fishing, especially over summer when the pelagics are running... if only barra weren’t so scarce down here.

Anyway, I’ve been coauthoring a comprehensive field guide to the reptiles of the NT over the last couple of years. One thing that has become clear is that information about species’ distributions is lacking for plenty of reptiles. Sea snakes are especially poorly known in the NT and most museum specimens have been kindly donated by commercial fishos who’d caught them as bycatch.

If anyone would be willing to share photos of sea snakes from around the NT, it would be really useful and greatly appreciated. I’m not bothered if the snake in the photo is alive, dead, caught on a barra classic, inside a fish gut... it is all good info. If you could also share some location info that would be great. It doesn’t have to be too specific, just a rough area or river system and, if in a river, an estimate of how far upstream would also be useful.

Fishermen definitely see a lot more sea snakes than 99% of reptile researchers and I’m sure some of you have seen some very rare snakes. A few species are only known from a couple of records. Others in WA were thought to be extinct until they were photographed a few years ago by fishermen.

Also, if you have seen anything that looked like a sea snake (with strong banded patterning or paddle-shaped tail) on the shore, I’d also be interested hear about them. I’ve heard rumours of possible sea kraits from the Wessel Islands but no solid evidence so far.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help. All the little bits of information can help to fill in the gaps and will help to make the field guide a bit more accurate.

Cheers
Sheeby

Caught this one at the mouth of sampan in May this year, was probably about 1m long caught on a reidys big B52 unfortunately, did manage to untangle it and let it go, while i was untangling another boat drove past and said they had caught one not long before. Was fishing with Ivan in the same spot a few years ago now and he also trolled up one similar

Legend. Thanks Trent.
That one is an elegant sea snake (Hydrophis elegans). Probably one of the more common, large sea snakes across northern Australia and one of the longest, up to about 210cm.

Cheers
Brendan

Gday sheeby
I too have been MIA for 3 years.
I pulled a crab pot near Fraser Is and found a dead sea snake inside. I assume he died due to suffocating because he couldnt resurface
Anyway, I would

If you’re ever back up here, Flat Top Banks is the go for finding them.
Was Mack fishing in August and they were as thick as the Eels that surface after a rain out at Shady.
Almost outnumbered the dolphin pods that were out there...

Plenty of Bockadams around the place. I found a group of about 20 one night of all different colours but can’t find the pics I took..