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The Seahorse Trust News

Studland among MCZ considered sites

By | Studland Bay, The Seahorse Trust News | No Comments

At a meeting on the 24 February, DEFRA  announced the sites which are under consideration for the second tranche (T2) of Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) in England.

37 sites are being considered for inclusion in Tranche 2 which cover both inshore and offshore sites right around the English coast.

Studland Bay in Dorset is to be considered and so it falls on all of us to lobby hard to DEFRA on making this special area an MCZ. As I know more I will let you know how to lobby DEFRA but meanwhile please write to them, e-mail them, phone them, there details are on their website, anything to make this happen.

Studland is a very unique site for so many reasons but from our point of view it was home to a large group of Spiny seahorses. I say WAS because since 2009 to 2013 the number has dropped from 40 individuals down to 4, despite warnings that this was happening by The Seahorse Trust. which came from our survey work we have conducted there since 2008..

Simple measures could be put into place to alleviate one of the problems and that is the pressure on the seagrass bed (home to the seahorses) from anchors and moorings.

This year it is hoped that a few environmentally friendly moorings (EFM’s) are to be trialled in the bay and we hope to replace all moorings on the site with these moorings and to encourage visiting boats to use the EFM’s and not to drop their anchors. This will still allow boating activity but will take the pressure off the seagrass and hopefully will allow the seahorses to recover their numbers, if it is not too late.

The two native seahorses, Spiny and Short Snouted are fully protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act under schedule 5, section 9 and so this should not have happened. Sadly to date Marine Management Organisation (MMO) have not put into place any measures to protect the seahorses, despite them being informed of the problems, time and time again and they are the statutory authority whose job it is to enforce the law.

I have added below a link to the RYA showing where all the proposed tranches are going to be.

http://www.rya.org.uk/newsevents/news/Pages/SitesforsecondtrancheofMCZs.aspx

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The Beautiful Seahorse Dargon, which can be rented by its makers for functions and to highlight this Year of the (Sea) Horse

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Sea Lifes appeal to the Chinese community about the TCM trade

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One of the studenst holding a dried seahorse so everyone rea;lises what the day was about.

The students were all shouting Happy New Year in Chinese and did an amazing job of highlighting the issues, thank you to them all for their help and enthusiasm.

There is some video on You Tube which can be accessed from our conservation day

You Tube videos

By | The Seahorse Trust News | No Comments

We have just added some You Tube videos to the site on the conservation and Medicine trade pages. They are also available here.

Seahorses and the Chinese Medicine Trade                                      http://youtu.be/kCPYotfkYzg

Seahorse pair at Studland                                                                   http://youtu.be/hIJxVpsq944

Seahorse                                                                                             http://youtu.be/xLfyrwj1QhM

Digging up Studland                                                                           http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMm9g9ms8us

Camouflage in wild seahorses                                                             http://youtu.be/TlAiwrQEcME

5 Year report about the seahorse study in South Beach, Studland Bay, Dorset

By | Studland Bay, The Seahorse Trust News | No Comments

We have now been researching seahorses at South Beach in Studland Bay for years and have made some incredible discoveries and increaseed our knowledge of seahorses around the British Isles. The 5 year report below outlines what we have been doing in Studlnad, its connection with the British Seahorse Survey and our recommendations.

This survey would not have been possible without all of our volunteers and the funding we have received from so many sources, especially the initial grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund who started us on our way. Thank you to one and all for your amazing support and we look forward to the next 5 years at this amazing site.

5 Year Report on the Tagging of Seahorses at Studland Bay

Thank you GAC

By | The Seahorse Trust News | No Comments

Once again our friends at GAC Logistics have kindly sent a donation towards our work here at the trust. Instead of sending out bottles of wines to their customers, they have made a donation to the trust on behalf of all of them and GAC.  We are so grateful to the team at GAC and would like thank them so much for their amazing support, not just this Christmas but for the things they have done for us throughout the year.

Website:              www.gac.com

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Thank you to everyone who supports the trust, we aim to make a big difference to the environment and to preserve seahorses, our oceans and the environment for generations to come.

Happy Christmas and have a fantastic New Year

Best wishes from all at The Seahorse Trust

Happy Christmas from all at the trust

By | The Seahorse Trust News | No Comments

Dear all, I think this card from Lila sums it all up, inside it says Merry Christmas and a Seahorse Saving New Year.

Thank you Lila and the same to you and your family and all our amazing supporters.

Every year we grow from strength to strength and thank you so much for all your hard work.

Happy Christmas and have a brilliant New Year

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Manly SeaLife Centre start Seahorse Surveys

By | The Seahorse Trust News | No Comments

Seahorses around the world are little understood but Robbie and his team from Manly Sealife Centre in Sydney Harbour have launched a seahorse survey in partnership with the trust to try and find out more about them. Robbie and the team have done a couple of dives now and found some Hippocampus whitei and they know there are several other species in the area. Diving in the area is interesting as they have to dive around the shark nets, so they keep one eye out for seahorses and one for sharks makes for a very interesting dive !!! We hope to expand the seahorse surveys out to all Sealife Centres around the world in 2014, so that we can build a world knowledge on the species, its behaviour and distribution.

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Thank you SeaLife Centres and your guests

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The only way forward in understanding about seahorses is to form partnerships around the world and our ongoing partnership with the Sea Life Group is vital to our research and knowledge but Sealife and its amazing staff and visitors bring more to this as well. We have been nominated for the second year running as the Seahorse charity that sealife is raising funds for in Europe. The collection vortexes in each of the European Sealife Centres have been dedicated to the trust, so every penny put into these vortexes comes to the trust to help fund our work. I would like to publically thank the Sealife group and their visitors for their amazing support, without them we could not do so much. So next time your in a sealife Centre please drop a penny into their vortexes and support the work we are all doing together.

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Thank you National Marine Aquarium

By | The Seahorse Trust News | No Comments

Here at the trust we are so lucky to have the support of so many people and organisations, not only supporting our goals and research work but also in raising funds for us. The National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth is one such organisation who have kindly raised almost £1,000 for our work from their guests this year and we would like to thank them for all their hard work.
http://www.national-aquarium.co.uk/

Seahorse Survey in Malta

By | The Seahorse Trust News | No Comments

The project in Malta has really developed now and we have a joint partnership between ourselves, the PDSA and Nature Trust Malta. We have 2 coordinators on the islands, Neville on Malta and Donna on Gozo, who represent the PDSA, so that they can report in and spread the word about the seahorses. Donna has also kindly offered to represent The Seahorse Trust on the islands and her e-mail is malta@localhost
Thank you to everyone who has helped to get this project together (especially Beccy and Shane who put the foundations together over the last few years) and we are already having sightings come in. Sightings like Cats amazing piece of video (https://www.facebook.com/groups/106564446031865/)  helps us to understand more about the seahorses on the islands so that we can know more and to help advise the Maltese Government on the best ways to protect these incredible fish, so they are there for everyone to see for many years to come. We are also working with local biologist Paul Camilieri who is Maltese but will be doing his PhD in Plymouth from December. His PhD is based on Seahorses around the Mediterranean.