By Pacific Island Times News Staff
A snake was found inside a cargo hold on a container ship that came from Saipan Thursday, port officials said.
"Our Port employees immediately notified officials at Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture of what they had found and sent photos and video of the snake,” said Rory Respicio, port general manager.
Port stevedores discovered the snake at 8 p.m. Thursday below deck on Bay 18 of the container vessel CMA CGM Herodote, which arrived on Guam yesterday morning.
Guam Customs and USDA arrived at 10:05 p.m. and brought their dogs to try and locate the snake but were unable to find the snake.
Respicio noted that vessel operations continued except for a pause in Bay 18 as Guam Customs and USDA were trying to locate the snake.
Guam Customs and USDA officials left the Port at 1:15 a.m. this morning and indicated that although the snake could not be located, they were able to identify the snake through the photos and videos as a brown tree snake.
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The brown tree snake is among the invasive species that threaten Guam's ecological system.
A native to Papua New Guinea, the brown tree snake was accidentally introduced to Guam in the 1940s through U.S. military transports after World War II.
Aggressive and venomous, the brown tree snake has no natural predators on Guam and soon established itself throughout the entire island. It has now reached densities of up to 30,000 per square mile. The snakes also crawl on electrical lines and cause expensive power outages and electrical damage.
Many techniques have been discussed to eliminate the brown tree snake in Guam, but there is no known way to remove them entirely.
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