---
title: Yellow-bellied Sea Snake (Hydrophis platurus)
scientific_name: Hydrophis platurus
common_name: Yellow-bellied Sea Snake
taxon: Sea snakes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-31T15:03:15.178Z
updated: 2026-08-12T10:21:44.163Z
tags: Yellow-bellied Sea Snake, Hydrophis platurus, Sea snakes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/reptiles/sea-snakes/yellow-bellied-sea-snake
---

# Yellow-bellied Sea Snake (*Hydrophis platurus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Sea snakes (*Hydrophiinae*)
- **Size:** up to 88 cm
- **Depth:** 0-100 m
- **Diet:** Piscivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Very Rare
- **Habitat:** Open ocean at the surface, in slicks and drift lines
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Venomous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- sharply two-toned: dark above, yellow below, along a clean straight line
- flattened paddle tail, often blotched black and yellow
- drifts at the surface in slicks rather than swimming anywhere
- length up to 88 cm

The one sea snake divers here ask about, and the answer is that it does not live in this sea: despite being the most widely distributed snake on earth, ranging across the Indian and Pacific oceans, it is absent from the Red Sea, most likely blocked by the cold upwelling off the Gulf of Aden. What follows describes an animal encountered elsewhere. It is unmistakable when met - sharply two-toned, black or dark brown above and yellow below along a clean dividing line, ending in a flattened paddle of a tail; the name platurus means flat-tailed. Females reach about 88 cm (35 in), males around 72 cm (28 in).

It is fully pelagic, drifting at the surface along slicks and current lines rather than visiting reefs, and it hunts by lying motionless until small fish gather beneath it, then striking with a lunge backwards - an unusual reverse motion for a snake. The body is built for a life that never touches land: valved nostrils and a palatal seal keep seawater out, up to a third of its oxygen is taken through the skin, and it drinks nothing but fresh water, sipping the lens of rain that floats on the sea after a shower. Between rains it can endure severe dehydration for as long as seven months. The venom is potent - a neurotoxin that stops the diaphragm - but the animal is inoffensive, and bites are almost unheard of outside fishing nets.

Reproduction happens entirely at sea; the species never comes ashore, not even to give birth. After roughly six months of gestation a female bears two to six live young, each around 25 cm (10 in) long and independent from the moment it is born. They mature at about eighteen months and may live a decade.

## Also known as

- **English:** Yellow-bellied Sea Snake, Golfo Dulce yellow sea snake, Pelagic Sea Snake
- **Arabic:** ثعبان البحر أصفر البطن, ثعبان البحر المفتوح, افعى المحيطات
- **French:** Pélamide ou Serpent marin noir et jaune, Serpent marin noir et jaune, Serpent marin jaune
- **Italian:** Serpente di mare dal ventre giallo, Idrofide dal ventre giallo, Serpente di mare giallonero
- **German:** Plättchen Seeschlange, Plättchen-Seeschlange
- **Spanish:** Culebra del Mar, Serpiente Marina Amarilla, Serpiente marina pelágica
- **Portuguese:** Serpente-marinha-pelágica
- **Dutch:** Samengedrukte zeeslang
- **Polish:** pęz dwubarwny
- **Czech:** vodnář dvoubarvý
- **Japanese:** セグロウミヘビ
- **Chinese:** 長吻海蛇, 长吻海蛇, 黑背海蛇
- **Russian:** Двухцветная пеламида
- **DA:** Gulbuget Havslange
- **HU:** sárgahasú tengerikígyó
- **KO:** 바다뱀
- **MAR:** पिवळ्या-पोटाचा समुद्रसर्प
- **TH:** งูชายธงหลังดำ

## Scientific synonyms

- *Anguis platura* Linnaeus, 1766
- *Pelamis platura* (Linnaeus, 1766)

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/reptiles/sea-snakes/yellow-bellied-sea-snake)*
*Updated: August 12, 2026*