The sea snake has been included in the List of Beneficial or Important Economic and Scientific Research Terrestrial Wildlife Protected by the State issued by the State Forestry Administration of China on August 1, 2000. Included in the 2013 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species ver3.1 - Near Threatened (NT). Also included in the China Biodiversity Red List—Vertebrate Volume The assessment level is Vulnerable (VU).

The small sea snake is half a meter long, and the large sea snake can reach about 3 meters. Sea snakes live along the coast, especially in brackish estuaries, where they feed on fish. Except for a very small number of sea snakes that lay eggs, the rest are ovoviviparous. It is mainly distributed in the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific Ocean, and has not been found in the Atlantic Ocean so far.