News
Source: Inside Science
Sea snakes require freshwater to keep themselves hydrated, but where do they find drinking water when surrounded by a sea full of saltwater? Scientists tackled this mystery by studying the yellow-bellied sea snake and found that the animals drink from pools of freshwater that gather on the surface of the ocean after heavy rain.
Harvey Lillywhite and other researchers at the University of Florida in Gainesville discovered that after a heavy rainstorm, the rainwater creates pools—or “lenses” as they called them—on the surface of the ocean because freshwater is less dense than saltwater and floats. Sea snakes seek out these lenses to drink from.
Yellow-bellied sea snakes are venomous snakes that can go for months without water. They have flattened tails that aid in their swimming and are the only pelagic sea snake, meaning that they live in the open ocean.
Read more here.
RELATED ARTICLES
LATEST EQUIPMENT
GoPro HERO13 Black | Seacam Housing for Sony a9 III | Nauticam NA-Z6III | Ikelite Housing for Canon EOS R5 II | Backscatter Hybrid Flash HF-1 |