Sea Snake research in New Caledonia

International audienceNew Caledonia hosts about fourteen species of sea snakes. They belong to both of the marine Elapidaelineages: laticaudinae or sea kraits, which are oviparous and amphibious, and hydrophiinae or true seasnakes, which are viviparous and fully marine. Some populations of these sea snakes species areexceptionally easy to access for researchers, as they inhabit shallow coastal waters near urbanized areas.However, they did not attract much interest from scientists before the twenty-first century. Less than 20scientific articles about New Caledonian sea snakes were published before 2000, some of them onlymaking a brief account of species presence. Sea snake research greatly increased in New Caledonia duringtwenty-first century, as more than 55 articles containing data about New Caledonia sea snakes werepublished to date. Professor Rick Shine is one of the major initiators of this increase, since he authored orco-authored at least 35 of these papers. These studies cover different aspects of sea snake ecology andevolution. This presentation aims to highlight some of the findings of his research about sea snakes inNew Caledonia