A Bay of Plenty man got a surprise on his morning dog walk after mistaking a live yellow-bellied sea snake - the second to wash up in the region this week - for an eel on the beach.
Cre-amer Paul had been running his dogs between Hōkawai and Tīrahonga beaches near Ōpōtiki on Friday morning when he spotted what he thought was an eel lying near the shoreline.
"I see it move a little bit. I went down the beach and I thought, 'I will try and flick it back in on my way back,'" he told 1News.
"When I stopped and pulled up, I thought 'oh sh*t, that's not an eel, that's a sea snake."
His dog Prince came dangerously close to the animal before Paul intervened.
“He got pretty close to the bloody thing,” he said.
Initially thinking the snake might be unwell, Paul picked up a stick to try and move it safely but quickly realised it was very much alive.
“As soon as I did one little flick, yeah, it wasn’t sick. It was quite lively.”
It was not the only unusual marine encounter he’s had.
A few years ago, Paul said he came across a live oarfish washed up on the sand.
“I thought that was dead too until I picked it up and it started moving,” he said.
He later returned it to the ocean using a rip current.
"I didn't even know what it was for a couple of months until I was showing photos and some fella said 'that's an oarfish, those are rare'."
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A yellow-bellied sea snake washed up on nearby Ōhope Beach earlier this week.
Sea snakes generally lived in warmer tropical waters to the north of the country, DOC marine science adviser Karen Middlemiss told 1News last year.
"When you get storm events up there that are driving the oceans south, then they can get sort of flipped into different currents down here."
Snakes generally didn't last long after arriving in New Zealand, she said.
"The waters are far too cold, so when they do wash up on the beaches, they don't survive very much longer than a couple of days."
Anyone who found a yellow-bellied sea snake was advised to steer clear, keep pets away, and call 0800 DOC HOT.
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