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The conservation status of about 40 per cent of sea snake species is too hard to determine given a lack of data. Even the travelling range and breeding habits are not well researched.
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Genetic testing of the specimen will help scientists determine how closely related the Czeblukov’s sea snake found in the gulf is to the few samples taken from other sites.
James Cook University sea snake researcher Blanche d’Anastasi co-authored a paper published in Australian Zoologist this month on the visual identification of the sea snake. She says the WA coast has unique biodiversity found nowhere in Australia or the world.
“A lot of work has not been done on this [Czeblukov’s] species which is why this record is exciting, it adds a lot to its distribution and a genetic sample we can find out how far this species moves to breed.
“My whole focus in life as a scientist is conservation, and if we want to conserve things we have to know who lives where. If you don’t know who lives where you can’t design actions to protect them.
“That’s one of the key features of WA and sea snakes, we keep finding rare and also threatened species in places we didn’t know they existed.”
Short-nosed sea snakes were formerly thought extinct before this shot of them courting at Ningaloo confirmed their continued existence. Credit:Grant Griffin
In 2015 park rangers spotted a pair of then thought-to-be-extinct short-nosed sea snakes at the Ningaloo Reef.
The presence of such a unique species offered an opportunity for researchers to find out more about sea snakes generally with the animal understood to be in decline.
The Ashmore Reef, which is about 600 kilometres north of Broome in the Kimberley, was once one of the most thriving ecosystems for sea snakes with 17 species and an estimated 40,000 individuals in the 1990s.
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But the population dropped off suddenly with no one knowing why. It was not until last year that four of the species including a short-nosed sea snake were found on an expedition, led by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, with the latter seen some 67 metres below the surface.
Ms d’Anastasi said knowing Exmouth Gulf was still such a hotspot for sea snakes highlighted its importance as a reservoir of biodiversity for the aquatic creatures.
For marine scientists the knowledge there are so many sea snake species in one place further solidifies the importance of the gulf, which also has more than 800 fish species present.
Little research has been done in a water body once pegged for World Heritage Status, alongside the adjacent Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range National Park, compared to the Great Barrier Reef.
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Oceanwise Australia director Ben Fitzpatrick said there needed to be a coordinated multidisciplinary research program addressing some of the more important factors in the gulf such as ecosystem productivity and distribution of biodiversity.
“Information is lacking on the distribution of the coral reefs and the diverse sponge communities, we don’t know anything about where the sawfish are and they’re actually a critically endangered species,” he said.
“There hasn’t been much of a focus on Exmouth Gulf, ... it’s a blank part of the map so to speak.
“There just hasn’t been the motivation or the factors that have warranted an investment in the fundamental marine research.
“Which is a little bit odd, because we do have a lot of industrial projects that have been proposed for the area.”
Dr Fitzpatrick said the gulf and nearby Ningaloo were one of the last places in the Pilbara relatively untouched by major industrial projects but there had been a push and pull between industrialisation and environmentalism which had come to a head in the past few years.
He said with the recent cumulative impact study by the Environmental Protection Authority WA and the announcement the state government would protect large swathes of the gulf were positive steps which meant some knowledge gaps would have to be addressed in the planning process.
“There’s also a massive gap in our knowledge of the significance of the gulf for traditional owners, so there’s a real need to understand where, when, and how the traditional owners utilised the gulf,” Dr Fitzpatrick said.
“Qualing Pool, for example has been identified as a significant area and has been earmarked as an a-class nature reserve based on the indigenous values there. It’s really just the tip of the iceberg.”
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