Venomous sea snake found on Kiwi beach [+video]

Dargaville and Districts News

UNWELCOME VISITOR: Police were standing guard over a venomous sea snake that washed ashore on Dargaville's west coast, which was found by a man walking his dog.

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Police are standing guard over a venomous sea snake that washed ashore on Dargaville's west coast.

Baylys Beach resident Graeme Ramsey was walking his dog on the beach at about 8am yesterday when he came across the snake in his path about 1km north of the Chases Gorge entrance to the beach.

"It wasn't moving but it was alive and when I touched it with a stick it moved and it was very unusual looking," he says.

The snake appeared to be a defined black or dark blue on the upper top side of its body and a yellow colour on the under side, about .9m long and a tail that was a flattened oar shape and leopard skin coloured at the tip.

"I looked it up on the internet and found an image the same as what I'd found on the beach and it was called a yellow-bellied sea snake, apparently a member of the cobra family and described as extremely poisonous," Mr Ramsey says.

Dargaville police Constable Nick Wilson says police stood guard over the serpent throughout the day waiting for Biosecurity staff to arrive from Auckland.

"We contacted both Ministry of Fisheries and Department of Conservation but apparently it's handled by the Biosecurity people," he says.

Mr Wilson says police had been keeping people away from the snake just in case, but it seemed to be "quite placid and not keen on going anywhere".

However, another constable at the scene says when the snake was touched earlier in the day, it had struck out a slightly risen part of the sand, leaving two long, deep marks shaped like an X.

The Dargaville and Districts News is yet to speak to Biosecurity staff about the snake find.

- Dargaville and Districts News