Only one specimen has been collected in 1955 at 47 m depth near the northern border of the German EEZ in the North Sea (55.8ºN 6ºE, ISH 29-1955). The snake blenny is also rare in the Baltic Sea, with only one specimen collected off Fehmarn in 1896 and 2 specimens collected in 1935 off the south coast of Sweden, north of Rügen. An isolated population along the German and Polish coasts is thought to be a relict population from the last ice age (Ref. 35388). Its existence is supported by the collection of larvae in the Western Baltic in 1993 and 1998 (Ref. 89229).

Threat status: critically endangered in the German Baltic Sea (Ref. 88159).

Human activities that might affect the snake blenny in the German North and Baltic Sea: fisheries, eutrophication, sediment removal, construction of cables and pipelines, offshore installations, channel deepening, technical installations (Ref. 88171).