The Seahorse Trust News

Trust volunteer Beccy has created some beautiful mouse mats with a picture of one of our study seahorses from Studland on it. The picture was taken by Beccy and her partner Jonny and shows just how stunning the seahorses are around our coastline.

If you want to buy a mouse mat they are £9.99 plus £1.49p&p. Of this £4.99 goes directly to support The Seahorse Trust.
Please contact Beccy direct on rmac4521@aol.com

Don’t forget Beccy and Jonny are setting up the research project in Malta and if you are interested in taking part then contact them on seahorseproject@aol.co.uk This amazing project will allow us working in partnership with a number of organisations in Malta to understand more about Seahorses in Malta and we can then compare the data we gather with the information we have gathered here in the UK as we have the same species as Malta does.

We have to say a massive thank you to the staff and pupils of Salisbury Cathedral School for all their hard work in raising a massive £86 for The Seahorse Trust through their Christmas Fair.

Teacher Gillian Bathe has been working with the children for months now teaching them dance and art inspired by the movement of Seahorses in the wild.

The Seahorse Trust sent Gillain and the pupils a video made by graduate Joanna Whiting (who got a first for the documentary) of Bournemouth University. In the video, it shows the work of the trust at Studland in Dorset and shows footage taken by underwater videographer Doug Anderson showing seahorses swimming and living at Studland.

The pupils have used this footage to learn dance and explore art and some of the things they made were sold at the Christmas Fair.

Many thanks to one and all for all their hard work.

Not quite to do with seahorses but have a look at this website about a new series of films to do with the underwater world. It combines fantasy with the marine world and is an exciting project with its head office in Torquay, Devon.

The Seahorses Trust was on Saving Species on Radio on Tuesday the 8^th and repeated on Thursday the 10^th of November where we were talking about the tagging project at Studland Bay in Dorset and about seahorses in general. There has been fantastic feedback from the public about the article including lots of boating organisations that want to know how they can alleviate the problems that anchors are causing in the sea.

On the same programme reporter Helen Scales did a report on tagging seahorses in Tampa Bay Florida. Leslee and her team in Florida are using a different form of tagging for the diminutive Dwarf Seahorses which are only 5cm

Both sites, the one in Florida and the Studland bay face the same sort of problems with boat anchors eroding the site but in Florida they have the additional problem of farm run offs and pollution.

We are seeing the same problems occurring around the world in the shallow seagrass beds and the only way it can be sorted is by working together and putting in measures to protect the seas for the future.

The Saving Species programme can be found on the BBC I-player.

The Seahorse Trust has been invited to join a group set up by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) to work with a group of people and organisations looking at the best way to protect seahorses in the wild here in the UK. Unfortunately most of the areas that seahorses are found in are also the ones most used by mankind; so it puts untold pressure on them.
The work the trust has been doing at Studland and our success in getting both species protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) has helped to persuade the MMO that there is a need to have this important working group to address the problems facing Seahorses in the wild.

MESSAGE FROM AMY,

I am raising money for The Seahorse Trust who champion the protection of Seahorses within the UK.

On 20th August 2011 I set off from John o’Groats with an old university friend. Together over the next 11 1/2 days we traversed the country covering 1000.9 miles to achieve our goal! At 5pm on 31st August we reached our destination – Lands End.

It was hard, there were lots of hills, I wasn’t a particularly experienced cyclist and quite frankly felt a bit mad cycling down the country.

The Seahorse Trust is a small charity that works exceptionally hard with the small amount of resources they have to raise awareness of Seahorses.

If hearing about my journey has inspired you or if you know me and are just surprised I made (in one piece!) then please feel free to make a donation towards this worthy cause.

I really appreciate all your support and thank you for any donations and you can donate via Virgin Giving at the following link.

http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/AmyPropsting

Amy x

Seahorse Trust trustee Charlotte and a few friends will be cycling coast to coast from Ilfracombe to Plymouth on the weekend of the 29th/30th October; a 105 mile cycle overall to raise funds for The Seahorse Trust and you can support her through Virgin Giving, the more she gets the more the trust can do.

Visit the link below to find out how you can sponosr Charlotte to do this gruelling cycle ride and don’t forget to Gift Aid it. If your a UK tax payer we can claim 25p for every pound you donate which is a huge boost to us.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/seahorsescoasttocoast

The Seahorse Trust is a charitable organisation which carries out research and marine conservation into Seahorses and the environment worldwide.

It would be fantatic if you could sponsor Charlotte and her group to do this event to raise as much money as they can for the Trust so it can continue its work with seahorses both around the UK and worldwide.

Remember if you want to do an event to raise funds for the trust to do its work then sign up to Virgin Giving, its the easiest and safest way to get sponsors for an event.

Trust divers had an amazing dive yesterday on our study site at Studland Bay in Dorset, not just one but two female Spiny Seahorses. Trust volunteer surveyors have not found seahorses for several dives now so to find these 2 females is fantastic and surprising news. 2011 has been a very quiet year for seahorses at Studland because of the unusual weather patterns that have not produced the food for the seahorses. Volunteer Shane found both of the seahorses which was such a surprise for him as they are his first seahorses in the wild. Although he has put in many hours of diving and turned up week after week he had not been successful but yesterday he found both of the seahorses and the look on his face said it all. Volunteers like Shane, Eva, John, Dan, Paul and all the others have made a big difference to our knowledge of seahorses in the wild and we offer a great vote of thanks to all off them including Beccy and Jonny who have taken their survey skills to Madagascar this summer and will be back with the trust soon.