Saving the seahorse

Diver Vassilis Mendoyannis was part of an archaeological team making an underwater inspection of the mining port in Stratoni, on the Halkidiki peninsula. Taking a detour to come out of the sea, he suddenly came upon a seahorse.
‘I was ecstatic,’ he says, ‘since, despite many years as a diver, I’d never come upon one of these creatures in the sea. Then we saw a second, and a third… The place was full of them! It was amazing.’

 

img_4018

 

Seahorses are fish. They live in water, breath through gills and have a swim bladder. However, unlike other fish, they have an exo-skeleton. They eat small crustacea, sucking up the food through their snout which is like a mini vacuum cleaner. An adult eats 30-50 itmes a day. Baby seahorses, which are amusingly called seahorse fry, eat a staggering 3000 pieces of food per day!

Mendoyannis returned to the spot a few months later, and again met with a plethora of seahorses. When he asked local fishermen about it they confirmed their presence in the area, showing him many that had got caught in their nets.
This was an important discovery, since seahorses are a vulnerable species, despite being masters of camouflage: they’re able to change color almost instantly and can grow appendages which make them resemble seaweed. However, they are slow swimmers and are easily entangled in nets, and their numbers in Greek waters have been steadily dwindling. So, researchers at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research were interested in finding out how that particular spot supported such an important population.

Then, in 2010, a bad storm resulted in tons of silt being deposited on the area due to the flooding of a dry stream, burying the eco-system of the sea bottom. After that, the seahorse population was reduced significantly. Being poor swimmers, seahorses use their prehensile tail to grip onto eel grass and other weeds in order to prevent themselves from being washed away by strong currents and waves. All this seaweed had now disappeared.

Mendoyannis came to the rescue. His team created an artificial environment, putting a metal grid on the sea floor to which were attached ropes and fake aquarium plants, giving the seahorses the means to anchor themselves. Results were impressive: the seahorses quickly adopted this artificial sea garden and their numbers started increasing again.

 

 

Today the area is still monitored by the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research and the seahorses are being photographed using a special, digital method which allows individuals to be recognized, despite their minuscule size. This will allow for various studies to be conducted, and a special documentary Is planned about the presence of the species in Greek seas.

‘Seahorses are are attractive and romantic creatures,’ says Mendoyannis, whose friends tease him about having fallen in love with the species. He believes that is why is why the local fishermen reacted positively to the idea of protecting the area.

The Greek name for a seahorse is hippocampus (ιππόκαμπος) which is a combination of the word ‘hippos’ (horse) and ‘campos’ (Campi in Greek mythology was a sea-monster, whose body was half human, half snake.) Ancient writers like Pliny thought the hippocampus had therapeutic properties, and, to this day, the traditional medicine trade (TCM) industry takes approximately 150 million seahorses per year from the wild for use mainly as natural aphrodisiacs.  There appears to be a new trend for dosing Chinese children with seahorse pills in the belief it will spur growth. Seahorses have also been proven to have high levels of collagen, which is encouraging Chinese women to use them as a substitute for Botox. All this, as well as the capture of seahorses to make tourist souvenirs and to display in aquariums, has been endangering the survival of the species.

When I was a child, I had a dried seahorse given to me by some fisherman. It was one of my most treasured possessions. Seahorses are unique in that the female transfers her eggs to the male, who thus becomes ‘pregnant’ and gives birth to loads of tiny offspring. Below I’ve included an amusing and rather astonishing video.

 

37 thoughts on “Saving the seahorse”

  1. Great work from the conservators, and delightful video clips too. Seahorses are such fascinating creatures, and must be preserved for the delight of future generations.
    Best wishes, Pete.

    Like

    Reply

  2. What fascinating information! Have always thought seahorses to be most beautiful creatures and am so glad that at least one country is looking at practical methods of conservation of the species. Hmmm: quite amusing that the males have to bear their progeny . . . that film is worth watching more than once! Thanks 🙂 !

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. A lovely post! Did you know there are seahorses in the sea around Britain? There is a problem here with dredging that uproots the vegetation they rely on.

    Why, oh why can’t people, especially the Chinese, who are so ignorant as to think body parts from endangered animals are good medicines, be educated into the real world? OK , I know it’s difficult, but is any REAL effort being made?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Yes, there are seahorses in most seas, many different species. I’m sure some effort is being made, by various organizations, but is it enough? It’s very difficult to combat misconceptions and financial issues (such as fishermen’s rights, and dried seahorses being sold to tourists)

      Like

      Reply

  9. What a great post. I love seahorses. I’ve only seen them once, in an aquarium sadly, and like you stood mesmerised. They are fascinating creatures. Loved your artwork too.

    Like

    Reply

  13. This is a wonderful post, Marina. I loved learning about the seahorses and watching the videos. I like your alphabet art as well – charming! I painted a single alphabet painting for one of my grandchildren, all animals. Was much fun and I think he likes it – he’s pretty little still.

    Like

    Reply

  14. Hadn’t thought of seahorses in years, reminds me of childhood – I also had a dried one! I like that they’re found and protected in Greek waters, as they’re linked in my mind to tales from Antiquity and magical creatures.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  15. Thanks for you post, Marina. I love seahorses too, and would love to see one in the wild. The sea dragons around the Victorian coast are pretty amazing, but I have only seen them in Melbourne’s aquarium. Have you read Helen Scale’s book on seahorses “Poseidon’s steed”?

    Like

    Reply
  17. Pingback: Birth of Seahorses – Dinata Misovec
  18. Pingback: Saving the seahorse – Br Andrew's Muses

      1. In the end I had to place the blog on my wife’s blog there was something corrupt about the page and everything went skewiff. However I do want to run a small comment on Seahorses and the Trans-community because they are very special women.

        Like

  20. Pingback: Saving the seahorse | Letters from Athens – Platypus Lady

  21. Hello. I enjoyed your blog on seahorses. I, too, have an affinity for seahorses. I used to love watching live seahorses and I was enchanted with their beauty and grace. I made an acrylic painting of a pair of seahorses and posted tbem on my blog, if you would like to see them. CharityGoodwinUS.com

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

I’d love to hear what you think

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: