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Dear all, we had a good piece in the Western Morning News, which can be found online at http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Seahorses-disappear-Studland-Bay/story-23087722-detail/story.html

It shows the urgent need for Studland Bay to be protected

Please find the report for the expedition we helped to organise in Cambodia with Ben and Paul
http://issuu.com/fxpeditionskernow/docs/expedition_samloem_2013_report2/1

We would like to thank Valerie Thomas for kindly donating £250 towards the work of the trust in memory of her husband Vivian and below is the lovely statement she makes about Vivian.

In memory of Vivian Lansfield, a man who loved to be close to nature. With love from Valerie & our daughter Kerry xx

We have helped out on a documentary about the beautiful Dorset coastline. its people and species which is now showing at the link below. In it, we are shown working with our colleagues at Weymouth Sealife Centre who are researching the captive breeding of seahorses. We hope you enjoy it.

http://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/mare_tv/Dorset,sendung280548.html

We have finally joined the world of Twitter and have set up the Seahorse Twitter page, please find us on @seahorsecharity or look for The Seahorse Trust. Early days but we will get the hang of it, so please bear with us.

The Seahorse Trust attended the second Weymouth Sealife Centre Conservation Evening last night and it was a great success with stands from a number of conservation organisations like the RSPB and the Shark Trust and Sealife’s own environmental charity The Sealife Trust. It was a great evening attended by a very enthusiastic crowd and we would like to say a massive thank you for all the team in Weymouth for putting this event on and looking forward to next year already.

Fisherman Peter Guille had the surprise of his life a week ago when he pulled a Pollack out of the water off the Channel Island of Sark. When he lifted the Pollack from the water he saw a Seahorse hanging from its mouth which in itself was amazing but imagine his surpise when he gutted the Pollack to find 55 others in its belly including 4 that were still alive. Peter put the live seahorse back into the sea and the rest into a bucket and on returning to shore he contacted local widlife filmaker (and seahorse sightings coordinator for the trust in the Channel Islands) Sue Daly and she went to investigate and take some pictures. When Sue got there she found that 4 were still alive and donning her SCUBA gear she packed up the live seahorses and took them back under the water to release them, which she did in the local Harbour. After spending some time with the seahorses Sue happily left them to their own devices and hopefully they survived their ordeal inside the Pollack, bit like Jonah and the whale.

What is more amazing is that these small Short Snouted Seahorses (all juveniles about 3 to 4 cm long) were almost all female.

This remarkable incident is even more strange because of how difficult seahorses are to find in the wild due to their cryptic nature. In the past we have only had a couple of occurences of mass findings like this but all the previous ones have been seagulls eating seahorses.

Perhaps we should train Pollack to find seahorses for us when we are doing our survey work!!

The pictures below (copyright Sue Daly 2014) show the ones that sadly did not survive and the ones that did and Peter the fisherman who had the quick thought to put them back in the wild and contact Sue. Many thanks to both of them for all of this

Right now, the US government is receiving public comments on whether or not to create the world’s largest Marine Protected Area in the Pacific Ocean. But President Obama is under enormous pressure from a powerful fishing lobby to water down the plan.

We can’t let that happen — majestic whales, turtles and fish stocks are all disappearing. Scientists say the best way to save our oceans is to protect large swaths from exploitation so that marine life can recover. Four years ago, we played a pivotal role persuading the UK government to create a massive marine sanctuary in the Indian Ocean, and the UK Foreign Ministry cited our campaign in its announcement. Now, if we all speak out, we can create a reserve the size of Mexico!

If we send Obama a tidal wave of global public support now, we will empower him to counter opposition and help save our oceans for generations to come. Sign the petition and tell everyone — let’s deliver one million voices before the official consultation closes in days.

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/ocean_of_hope_loc/?bUaiMgb&v=43591

Dear all excitingly we are updating our website at the moment and hope to have a shop attached to it by the end of the year, which will be great for all those people that want seahorses memorabilia. We already have one or two items of one off jewellary and art works that have been donated to help raises funds for us.

PLease also check out our Facebook page where you can find lots of exciting things happening in the seahorse world.https://www.facebook.com/groups/106564446031865/