Abstract
Stomach contents of 845 wild-captured elasmobranchs (representing 21 species of more than 13 genera) from the Yaeyama area, southern Ryukyus, were examined for the elapid sea snakes. These specimens included 496 tiger sharks Galeocerdo cuvier , of which 343 had prey remains and 48 had sea snakes. Of the others, one of the 29 nurse sharks Nebrius concolor (including 23 with some items in stomachs) and the one smooth hammerhead shark Sphyrna zygaena also had sea snakes, whereas the remainder, including 187 with some prey remains in stomachs, had no sea snakes. Six of the seven sea snake species hitherto recorded from the Yaeyama area, including Pelamis platura , for which very little is known about its predator, were found from the tiger shark stomachs.
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