Lukochek, 2007:

"The high biodiversity and conservation value of Australia's sea snake fauna has been recognised by listing all marine hydrophiine species under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (Commonwealth) 1999 (EPBC Act) (Commonwealth of Australia, 1999). Despite this listing there is currently no conservation plan for any sea snake species in Australian waters.  Indeed, conservation plans for listed marine species exist only if the species are also listed as threatened under commonwealth or state jurisdictions.  The status of Australian sea snake populations and/or species is unknown:  consequently none are listed as threatened.  Lack of information thus hinders the conservation planning process.

The importance of obtaining such information was highlighted recently by evidence that two geographically restricted Australian endemics, Aipysurus foliosquama and A. apraefrontalis, have become locally extinct on Ashmore Reef, and that other species have experienced severe population declines.  The one clearly identified threatening process for sea snakes is by-catch in trawl fisheries (Ward, 2000).  While it is not clear what is driving population declines at Ashmore Reef, it is, however, important to note that declines have occurred in the absence of trawling on Timor Sea reefs and despite Ashmore Reef being a marine protected area since 1983 (Commonwealth of Australia, 2002).

One criterion for prioritising species for conservation is their evolutionary uniqueness, with evolutionarily distinct species potentially having a higher biodiversity and conservation value (Faith, 1992; Crozier, 1997; Marsh et al., 2007).  The molecular phylogeny presented in Chapter 2 revealed the evolutionarily distinctiveness of the Aipysurus and Hydrophis lineages, indicating that each lineage has high biodiversity value and needs to be protected.  With one exception, all Aipysurus species are endemic to Australiasian waters and four species have highly restricted distributions in the Timor Sea (Cogger, 2000). Two species now appear to be threatened.  Population genetic and phylogeographic evidence for A. laevis indicated that large expanses of deep water, such as those separating Timor Sea reefs, present strong barriers to dispersal.  Aipysurus apraefrontalis and A. foliosquama are more strongly tied to reef habitats than A. laevis and occur almost exclusively in shallow reefal waters (Cogger, 2000). Deep-water barriers are, therefore, expected to strongly limit dispersal for A. apraefrontalis and A. foliosquama, and locally extinct populations are unlikely to be re-established by colonisation from adjacent reefs."

---

Citation and/or URL

Lukoschek, V., 2007, Molecular ecology, evolution and conservation of hydropiine sea snakes. PhD thesis, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld.   

Spatial Coverage

Northern Australian tropical marine waters, including the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Temporal Coverage

30 years 

Update Frequency

Not applicable 

Other Information

Lukoshek, V., Heatwole, H., Grech, A., Burns, G., Marsh, H. (2007) Distribution of two species of sea snakes, Aipysurus laevis and Emydocephalus annulatus, in the southern Great Barrier Reef: metapopulation dynamics, marine protected areas and conservation. Coral Reefs, 26, 2, 291-307