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/
Aklexandra Andersson, has written a sobering article for Time Magazine at the link below
(please copy and paste)
http://time.com/2999513/conservation-seahorses-dugongs-freshwater-slow-lorises-turtles-tortoises-sun-bears/
In the article, Alex has listed 5 species (the very tip of the iceberg) that are disappearing rapidly despite legal protection. Ou planet is reliant on the balance of our eco-systems if we allow this constant erosion of the web of life to continue then eventually it will collapse. We are already witnessing food shortages, water pollution, and habitat loss and what is left is a carefully manicured, artificial environment. Sadly there will come a time when this builds to such a level that a worldwide problem occurs. We have time to stop it but we have to act now before it is too late.
Thank you so much to Sam at OS Aquatics in Wool Dorset who has kindly nominated us as his charity to raise funds for. our work In his annual tidy up of his bedroom, Sam found lots of things to sell and has set up a stall outside of OS Aquatics and within just a few days he has raised £44 towards the work of The Seahorse Trust. We think he is amazing and is certainly a Seahorse Champion. Thanks Sam.
Please have a look at this video on you Tube which was filmed by Ross Birnie and Will Goldenburg of the annual seahorse swim on Studland Beach. Thank you so much to everyone involved and especially to Ross and will for putting the film together.
We had an amazing time on Sunday the 22nd of June at the Seahorse Swim at Studland Beach organised and run by Bob Holman and his amazing team of volunteers and swimmers. The event has been running for several years now and has grown from 50 swimmers in its first year to 230 this year and once again EDOWSC kindly supported the work of The Seahorse Trust by inviting us along and making a very generous donation of £300 towards our work at Studland.
Trust Director Neil started the race and set the swimmers on their way and at the end of the long gruelling course he presented some of the prizes.
It was a very hot sunny day and everyone who took part enjoyed themselves and the team of volunteers who ran the race did a fantastic job of making sure everyone was safe and well looked after.
It was so fantastic to see The Seahorse Trusts logo on the back of everyone’s t-shirts and our own team of volunteers answered many questions about the work at Studland.
Filming the race were Ross and Will who are doing a degree at Bristol University linked with the Natural history Unit; they were flying their quad copter over the swimmers to get a seagull’s eye view of the events and we hope to have a link to the footage online soon.
On behalf of The Seahorse Trust our trustees, patrons, members and supporters I would like to thank Bob and his incredible team for a very enjoyable day and if you want to learn more and maybe do a sponsored swim for The Seahorse Trust please have a look at their website and Facebook www.edowsc.org/ed/  and  www.facebook.com/eastdorsetopenwater
There are more pictures on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/106564446031865/
I just wanted to say a massive thank you to Louise Horvath and her amazing team of students on the animal care course (level 1) for raising £475 for the trust from their 8 miles sponsored walk and cake sale (held in the reception. They are the animal carers of the future and have kindly taken time out to raise money for our work, especially the work with the British Seahorses. Thank you so much for one and all for your hard work from everyone here at the trust, your all superstars.
Here at the trust we are very lucky to have a great team of trustees who oversee the work of the trust and one of them is Doctor David Gibson the CEO of the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth. Dave, his staff and their visitors have regularly raised funds for our work through the collection spinner, situated near the British Seahorses in the aquarium. Over the last few years they have raised several thousand pounds from donations, including a cheque this morning for the last month of £301.69. Thank you to everyone at the aquarium, visitors and staff alike for your amazing support.
We are attending a meeting tomorrow at Poole to discuss Studland Bay becoming a Marine Conservation Zone. It has been a very long very slow process but we have kept going and kept pressure on to make this highly vulnerable site protected. The seagrass has fragmented and is being destroyed and the seahorse numbers have crashed from 40 in 2008 down to 4 in 2013 (non so far this year), despite The Seahorse Trust getting them protected under the Wil…life and Countryside Act in 2008. We know the problems facing the seahorses and the seagrass but to date the authorities have refused to do anything to protect the site (despite the law).
We hope the making of Studland into a Marine Conservation Zone will be the start of a management process to try and restore this beautiful bay so the seahorses and seagrass can thrive again. The donations below and others we receive (from individuals and organisations like the Sealife Centres) mean that we can get on with this vital job; every bit of the sea or countryside that is lost, is lost forever. We hear about rainforests needing protection, which is vital to the planet but the seagrass meadows are our underwater rainforests (equally vital to the planet) with a stunning array of species living in them. As Ben from Project Seagrass (please see our facebook page) says they are vital to our planet as carbon sinks, wave diffusers to stop coastal erosion and as homes to a multitude of species.
Again thank you for your incredible support without you we would not have got this far, your donations have allowed us to undertake research and to lobby those that need to listen, if we had not lobbied so hard we would not be having this meeting tomorrow and we need to make them listen to make this beautiful bay preserved for the future of our planet.
Every year thousands of River Dolphins are killed illegally in Brazil. This is a country that is hosting a major football competition and yet its authorities let this happen.
Please use your voice to help this become a thing of the past.
Go to the WDC link below and look at their video and then please sign their petition to stop this wholesale slaughter. THANK YOU.
http://uk.whales.org/campaigns/stop-illegal-killing-of-river-dolphins
After years of requests from the international community Beijing recognizes that the hunting and traduing of 420 species is a “global threat”. The ban involves pandas, rhinos, pangolins and sharks: used in traditional medicine or considered “treats” these animals are in danger of disappearing. The penalties for violating the new law range from 3 to 10 years in prison.
Eating or hunting rare animals for food is now a criminal offense in China. The government has approved an amendment to the Criminal Code which sets 3 to 10 years in prison for those who “knowingly eat or trade “, the meat of the 420 species currently at risk across the Chinese territory. They include the giant pandas, golden monkeys, Asian black bears and pangolins. Shark fins and rhino horns, key elements in traditional Chinese medicine have also been banned.
The decision was made this morning by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which represents the national parliament. After years of requests from the international community, the Standing Committee defined the hunting of endangered species a “global threat”. In addition, the Commission has “blamed” wealthy Asian consumers who, thanks to a high volume of cash, foment trade in rare animals for personal purposes.
In Asian tradition, some breeds are associated with well-being and vigor. Giant turtle soup ensures a long life, bear’s paw helps sexuality, and powdered rhino horn is used to heal fever, epilepsy, malaria, poisoning and abscesses. Given these beliefs, the hunting and trading of these animals are very popular activities: announcing the reform today, state news agency Xinhua claims that “up to now those involved in these practices went unpunished”.
You can find a list of the protected species which includes one species of seahorse below at http://jpkc.ahut.edu.cn/hjpj/dwml.html
The Seahorse Trust was set up in 1999 as an umbrella organisation to preserve and conserve the natural world, especially the marine environment using Seahorses as our flagship species. We work in partnership through a Seahorse Alliance with many organisations and people from all over the world and it is this unique partnership that allows us to achieve so much in the conservation of seahorses and their environment for the future.
© 2024 The Seahorse Trust.
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