Blame El Niño for Poisonous Sea Snake Found on Ventura County Beach
For the first time in 30 years or so, a poisonous sea snake has been spotted on a Southern California beach, drawn far north of its usual habitat by what naturalists think are the warming ocean waters because of El Niño.
A yellow-bellied sea snake, Pelamis platurus, was found Friday at the high tide line at Silverstrand Beach in Ventura County by a surfer, according to officials at the Heal the Bay organization and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Natural History Museum adds rare sea snake to its collection
It’s the first known report of the species in Ventura County, and the northernmost record along the Pacific Coast of North America, they reported.
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