Background:

There are more than 60 species of sea snakes, the ones distributed through tropical and subtropical coastal ecosystems of Indo-Pacific region, play an important role in tropic web of coastal communities. The Persian Gulf, with about 10 species, is known as the westernmost limit of distribution of sea snakes.

Iranian Hara (mangrove) Protected Area (HPA), an area of about 10000 ha of the northern Qeshm Island, lies in the northeastern Persian Gulf; and is known as the largest mangrove stand in the Middle East. There are many villages in the neighborhood of the area in the northern Qeshm Island. Fishing activity in mangrove channels, using trap nets, is well developed among local communities. Annulated sea snake (Hydrophis cyanocinctus) is dominant sea snake in the HPA; although some other sea snakes are also reported from the mangrove channels. Entanglement in fishing nets is the most common threat for sea snakes in HPA; they remain entrapped for more than one day and then removed from the nets by fishermen without any consideration. Also the locals are used by instituions in charge of producing medical venums to capture sea snakes but when the venum is extracted in the institutions they are either not returned to nature or are not returned in an appropriate way and in their micro-climate

Project description:

This project is carried out to enhance motivation of local people to care about sea snakes and to lobby with mainstream institutions for communication the threats of the exiting procedures..

?Turning the locals to producers of natural products rather than poachers of sea snakes.

?Developing a pilot for proper extraction of the venom and selling venom as a valuable natural product.rather than capturing and selling the snakes to medical institutions and industry

?Establishing a visitor center to present sea snakes to eco-tourists and introducing them as an important, but little known module of marine ecosystems.

?Collecting biological and ecological data of sea snakes in the order to establish future conservation programs.

?Advocating the importance of snakes in the ecological chain and their sensitivity to their micr-climas in their natural habitats to the local poachers, fishermen, and the medical instituions.