The Yellow bellied sea-snake is a reptile and breathes air into lungs, not relying on gills like eels and fish. Reproduction and live birth are all done at sea, like sea mammals do. Sea snakes can hold their breath for fairly long periods. We'd like to remind everyone that we have expertise on reptile and bird identification. We believe that changes in bird population have occurred and may reveal the health of the rainforest, our water shed as well as the bird numbers.
Local people believe the pigeon population is down.
This is probably true but for multiple reasons. The pigeon on Pohnpei and Kosrae was heavily hunted by the Japanese. It seems that local hunting as well as forest cutting has furthered the downsizing of the pigeon population. It may be wise for Pohnpei State to consider a 5 or 6 year moratorium on pigeon hunting to allow the population to recover. The alternative is to let the pigeon disappear.