A yellow-bellied sea snake described as highly venomous has washed up on a California beach, hundreds of miles from its usual habitat.
According to wildlife experts, warmer waters related to El Nino may have brought the reptile closer to shore than it normally would approach.
The venomous snake has been found on state beaches only two other times, once earlier this year and another instance back in the 1970s during another El Niño event.
The 27-inch male snake is already dead when members of the Surfrider Foundation conducting a beach cleanup found it on Bolsa Chica State Beach about 30 miles south of Los Angeles.
"It is incredible and fascinating to have two of these aquatic, highly venomous snakes suddenly show up around here," said Greg Pauly, herpetological curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
It may have navigated farther north than its normal tropical habitat by this year's strong El Niño that has spread abnormally warm ocean temperatures, the Surfrider Foundation said on its Facebook page.
"There is belief that the El Niño temperature change could have enticed the creature to swim north in search of small fish and eels, which they use their venom to paralyze," the group says in the video shown.
"But this is not an invasion, and no one has ever died from the bite of this animal," Pauly said.
The sea snake, which lives its entire life in the ocean, has tiny fangs and a small mouth that could barely open wide enough to bite a person, he said.
The Pelamis platura is a snake that has a flat, paddle-like tail with black spots and a yellow undersurface. It can swim either forward or backward and can stay underwater for up to three hours.
Found in warm tropical waters off the coasts of Asia, Africa, Australia, Central America and Baja California, the yellow-bellied sea snake is the most wide-ranging snake species on the planet.
