Diving of the sea snakePelamis platurus in the Gulf of Panamá

Abstract

Fifteen yellow-bellied sea snakes,Pelamis platurus, fitted with pressure-sensitive ultrasonic transmitters, were tracked in the Gulf of Panamá during 1983–1985. Snakes spent up to 99.9% ($\bar x$ = 87%) of the tracking time under water and dived to 50 m. The maximum voluntary submergence time observed was 213 min, and of 202 complete dives logged, 19 exceeded 90 min. Dive durations of tracked snakes were typically longer than expected, based upon their estimated body-oxygen stores, and some were even longer than the reported survival times of forceably submerged snakes. Snakes, however, dived repeatedly and did not spend long periods at the surface between dives, suggesting that they did not develop an oxygen deficit during diving. Diving snakes may be able to avoid anaerobiosis by having a reduced metabolic rate, an enhanced rate of cutaneous oxygen uptake, or both. Surface conditions and subsurface temperatures influence the diving behavior ofP. platurus. Laboratory experiments in Panamá indicated that a larger number of snakes were submerged when surface water was turbulent. During February and March, the period of dry season upwelling in the Gulf of Panamá, sea snakes were found to avoid cooler, subsurface water and to make significantly shallower dives: mean maximum depth 6:8 m (n=76) in contrast to a mean maximum depth of 15.1 m (n=147) during the wet season. The dives during the dry season tended to be of shorter duration, with 44% lasting less than 15 min, compared to only 19% of the dives recorded during the wet season being completed in less than 15 min. General avoidance of subsurface temperatures cooler than 19°C was confirmed by laboratory experiments in the 10 m-deep tank at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.