EAD issues sea snake warning for UAE beaches

Pay particular care on Saadiyat Island and Abu Dhabi Corniche…

The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) has taken to social media to urge the public to keep their eyes open for snakes as the coastal waters of the emirate cool. Not your ex, although potentially as venomous. These are sea snakes.

These, what are known locally as ‘Bu jinn’ or ‘Bogni’, sea snakes typically move to shallow waters early in winter to breed. They are venomous, but bites are rare (unless the animals are provoked) and deaths are almost unheard of — at least partly because venom injection occurs in very few cases.

Snakes on a grain (of sand)

If you spot one on the beach, with its tail up and getting stuck into a copy of What’sssssss On, the EAD has requested that individuals “avoid touching it or trying to catch it”, that they inform the lifeguard or relevant beach management and call Abu Dhabi Government help line on 800 555.

In the unlikely event you end up getting bitten by one, you must head directly to the hospital for antivenom treatment.

The EAD’s warning came with a request to pay particular vigilance in known feeding and breeding grounds, these include the waters off Saadiyat Island and Abu Dhabi Corniche.

There may be as many as nine different species of sea snake in the waters around the UAE including reef snakes, spine-bellied sea snakes, yellow-bellied sea snake and Gulf sea snakes.

Images: EAD