MOSSEL BAY NEWS - A yellow-bellied sea snake, rescued from a beach in Dana Bay, was successfully released back into the deep sea recently. 

This year, 35 yellow-bellied sea snakes - a record number - have been found stranded on South African beaches and those found only have a 20% survival rate.

Heinrich Ninaber, known as the local snake catcher in the Dana Bay community, told Mossel Bay Advertiser he had received a call from a man, Theuns Blom, who had come across the snake while walking between Second and Third beaches on Friday, 20 September. 

Ninaber went with Blom to find the snake and was surprised when he found it still on the beach, in shallow water under rocks. "Usually the seabirds try to get to the snake, so we were lucky it was still there," he said. 

Ninaber carefully captured the snake and contacted the curator of herpetology at Bayworld in Gqeberha, Dr Werner Conradie, who told him how to look after the snake until it was ready to be released back into the deep sea. 

Conradie told the Advertiser there is a network across the Eastern Cape and parts of the Western Cape for helping stranded marine animals and it was through this network that he and Ninaber made contact. 

Read more and see a video on www.mosselbayadvertiser.com

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