Heatwole and Lukoschek, 2008:

"There are two kinds of seasnakes, sea kraits and true sea snakes. The sea kraits are egg layers and come out on land to oviposit and to rest and mate, whereas all true seasnakes give birth to live young and never voluntarily leave the sea. Although sea kraits are abundant in New Guinea and the island chain of the Solomon Is, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Tonga and Fiji, curiously they are unknown from Australia except as rare waifs. By contrast, Australia has a rich diversity of 32 species of true seasnakes, of which 14 species maintain permanent breeding populations in the GBR region."

AND

"Threatening processes affecting seasnakes are less well understood than those affecting sea turtles. In South-east Asia, many seasnakes are harvested for food and leather whereas, in Australia, all seasnake species are protected under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, 1999 and direct harvesting is banned."

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Citation and/or URL

Heatwole, H. and Lukoschek, V. 2008, Reptiles. In The Great Barrier Reef: Biology, Environment and Management, eds. P. Hutchings, M. Kingsford and O. Hoegh-Guldberg, CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia, 343-349. © ACRS 2008. http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/5921.htm.

Spatial Coverage

Great Barrier Reef.

Temporal Coverage

Review Chapter

Update Frequency

Not applicable 

Other Information

 None