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.<\/p>\n
Cre-amer Paul had been running his dogs between H\u014dkawai and T\u012brahonga beaches near \u014cp\u014dtiki on Friday morning when he spotted what he thought was an eel lying near the shoreline.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“When I stopped and pulled up, I thought ‘oh sh*t, that’s not an eel, that’s a sea snake.”<\/p>\n
His dog Prince came dangerously close to the animal before Paul intervened.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got pretty close to the bloody thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as I did one little flick, yeah, it wasn\u2019t sick. It was quite lively.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was not the only unusual marine encounter he\u2019s had. <\/p>\n
A few years ago, Paul said he came across a live oarfish washed up on the sand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that was dead too until I picked it up and it started moving,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He later returned it to the ocean using a rip current.<\/p>\n
“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’.”<\/p>\n
The poisonous sea creatures are being driven south by storm surges \u2014 but there is good news. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n