Featured Image Credit: Save Newport
By Sarah Sharkey
A 25-inch long female snake found in Newport Beach, California has scientists at the Los Angeles museum concerned. This species of snake is usually only found in tropical water, but a total of five have been found in California since 1972. The venomous yellow-bellied snake is one of the few that have ever been found on the beaches of California, but it is the first to be found in a La Nina year.
Its discovery has officials from the Pacific Marine Mammal Center worried about the potential numbers of seal strandings this year.
Their reasoning stems from the fact that climate scientists are calling this a mild La Nina year. (The climate patterns of an El Nino year include warmer water and higher surface pressures and La Nina climate patterns include colder waters and lower surface pressures.) Mass strandings of sea lions occurring in 2015 and 2016, both of these years were El Nino years and the warm waters were blamed for the number of strandings. Now officials are concerned that if a La Nina year is warm enough to find rare tropical snakes in California, then it may also be warm enough to induce mass strandings of sea lions.
The scientists are preparing for this to be another year of mass sea lion strandings.
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