Sea snake destroyed

Press, 24 April 1979, Page 3

Sea snake destroyed

PA New Plymouth A New Plymouth port agricultural officer, Mr A. Tolladay, has confiscated the venomous sea snake captured on Waitara Beach on Sunday, killed it, and tossed the remains into his incinerator.

His action has raised immediate controversy. Mr Tolladay used powers under the Animals Act to confiscate and kill the sea snake of the type known as the yellow belly.

But the director of the Taranaki Museum, Mr R. Lambert, questioned the need‘to kill the snake and

the fact, the body had not been offered to science. The curator of the Kawaroa Aquarium in New Plymouth, Mr P. S. Mayhead, said the public had been deprived of the chance to see an unusual sea reptile. The snake was held in the aquarium overnight and people had been arriving all day to see it, he said. Mr Lambert said he was still checking the necessary regulations, but he questioned whether they covered sea snakes such as the yellow belly (Hydrophiidae Pelamis platurus). “As I understand it, the regulations prohibit the introduction of reptiles into New Zealand, but this snake is naturally occurring here.” Whatever the case, he said, he believed the body should have been offered to science.