The Seahorse Trust News

Later this year Ben Toulson and the University of Exeter’s Expedition Team will be going out to Koh Rohl Samleon in Cambodia to follow on from the work of The Seahorse Trust, Marine Conservation Cambodia, Save Our Seahorses in Ireland and Pro Abroad in partnership with the Royal University in Phnom Penh and the people of Cambodia. They are set to explore this amazing Island and to log and catalogue the various species that live in this tropical paradise. Follow the team on their website (and updates here and on the trust facebook page), details of which can be found on the Vimeo film http://vimeo.com/68850576

They still need donations and sponsors for this incredible trip and equipment, so if you know anybody who can help, please get in touch via The Seahorse Trust. Corporate sponsors would be fantastic for Ben and the team on this ground breaking trip, which aims to discover so much and link the people of Cambodia, the natural world and the west in a unique expedition.

Dear all, it is with great sadness to announce the death of a colleague of ours from Save Our Seahorses in Malaysia. Choo Chee Kuang the founder and Team Leader of SOS was an inspiration to all and our thoughts are with his family and friends.We often shared ideas and thoughts with Choo and he was always insprirational and his enthuisam will be missed. I have posted below the abituary to him posted on the Save Our Seahorses website. http://www.sosmalaysia.org/home.html

Last Sunday, 9 Jun 2013, Save Our Seahorses Malaysia bade farewell to its Founder and Team Leader, Choo Chee Kuang after a long but incredibly brave struggle with cancer. Chee Kuang will fondly be remembered for his pioneering work on seahorses and the conservation of their precious seagrass home in Sungai Pulai, Johor.

Chee Kuang touched the lives of many who came in contact with him, and inspired many to engage in marine conservation. He will be dearly missed by all who had the privilege of knowing him intimately.

Thank you for the wonderful years for the seahorses and all those around it. Rest in peace our dear ecowarrior. May your bask in the warmth of Sungai Pulai’s tropical sun forever.

Sea Life’s new edition of Sea Urchin magazine features seahorses and some of the work of the The Seahorse Trust. In the latest edition there are some articles about our work at Studland and about various species of seahorses.You can download an app at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=517272291661333&set=a.172294776159088.47574.171616729560226&type=1&theater or follow a blog on http://seaurchinsmag.com/blog/?p=230S   Sea Life kindly help to fund some of the work of The Seahorse Trust through their vortexes; the money spinners in each European centre that collect donations for a charity. During the winter Sea Life dedicated a number of these vortexes to the trust and wil start again next October. We would like to say a massive thank you to them for their support.

Hippocampus Guttulatus Gorilla

Hippocampus Guttulatus Gorilla (or Hippy Gut for short) has been painted by Deborah Treliving, for the Great Gorilla project. Artists were invited to submit designs for the project, organised by Paignton Zoo to celebrate their 90^th birthday in 2013 and provide funds to the Wildlife Conservation Society to support Cross River gorilla research and conservation as well as a local community project in South Devon. Deborah’s Gorilla has been sponsored by Cavanna Homes, who are also celebrating their 90^th birthday this year.

Deborah wanted to make her gorilla relevant to Torbay. Seahorses, like the great gorillas are threatened worldwide. Torbay has a good population of two species of seahorses: the spiny seahorse and the short snouted seahorse.

Deborah explained: “This has been a great project giving me scope to do something different from my usual way of working. I have found seahorses fascinating creatures to draw. I hope that Hippocampus Guttulatus Gorilla will help to increase the awareness of Torbay’s seahorses”.

Hippocampus Guttulatus Gorilla will be part of the Gorilla Flotilla across Torbay on 23^rd July.

When the trail is complete, gorillas will be on show at businesses, shops, offices, schools, colleges and public spaces across Torbay and Exeter. Hippocampus Guttulatus Gorilla will be sited at Living Coasts, Torquay from 3^rd August.

After the event, the gorillas will be auctioned at a gala charity evening at the Palace Theatre in Paignton.

Deborah Treliving is a fine artist, painter and printmaker inspired by poetry and landscape. Her abstract work is recognised by richly textured and heavily embossed carborundum prints. A passion for colour is evident throughout her work, and her palette ranges from the strong and vibrant, to the delicate and subtle. She is a member of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen. Her work has been exhibited nationally, internationally, and in her studio in the stable yard at Cockington Court.

Further information:

www.deborahtreliving.co.uk

http://www.greatgorillas.org.uk

What a fantastic team. Lila Blake and her sisters Phoebe and Thia and their friend made some great objects and seahorses out of Hama beads to sell to raise money for the work of The Seahorse Trust. Between them they raised an amazing £30 which will go towards our British Seahorse Survey work.

In recognition of her hard work we have sent Lila an adoption pack and she decided Peta would be her favourite Seahorse.

Peta – Black Foot Indian name meaning “Golden Eagle” was found in Torbay when she was a youngster and was caught in a shrimp net; she was floating around with a large swarm of shrimps, which we think she was eating. Because of the various types of habitats to be found in Torbay it has both species of Seahorse living there and another Seahorse was found a week later about 100 yards from Peta but it was a Spiny Seahorse called Francis.

Thank you to Lila and her team for their hard work.

Local dive guide and underwater photographer Pete Bullen has been observing seahorses when he happens across them in Malta for many years, through his sightings we can now confirm the first resighting of a female Spiny Seahorse. The small female (nicknamed ‘Milly’) who is in superb condition was first photographed by Pete when he happened across her in mid April 2013, recently he came across her again on his latest dive in mid-May and she was in a similar area to where she was originally found. Pete kindly sends any sightings of seahorses to The Seahorse Trust as we are building up the National Malta Seahorse Database and this is allowing us to get a picture of the seahorses and their behaviour around these amazing islands, in a similar way to the British Seahorse survey we run here in the UK.
The little female Milly has very distinctive spots on her head and by using photo ID techniques we have worked out this is exactly the same female in both sightings. Each seahorse has a ‘thumb print’ of markings on their head which is unique to each individual. The data we are gathering shows the movement and depths the seahorses use and spend time in and this information will be used to help protect seahorses into the future in Malta.
The exact location of a seahorse is never given out because it is important they are left in peace and quiet. In Malta, as it is in the UK, both seahorse species, the Spiny and the Short Snouted are fully protected under environmental laws, this is to ensure we have seahorses well into the future and the research work being undertaken in Malta is part of our information gathering to make sure there is a future for Seahorses.
If Pete happens across a seahorse during his dive, he will photograph it (without a flash) and note the location, depth, habitat and anything unusual about the seahorses or in the area. All this information is then sent to The Seahorse Trust so we can analyse it and add it to the database.
The British Seahorse Survey has been running since 1994 and is the longest running and most comprehensive survey of its kind in the world; it has over 750 sightings on the National Seahorse Database run by the trust and this database has been used to protect Seahorses throughout the UK. We have made some incredible discoveries about seahorses in the wild and learnt so much more about their behaviour in the wild. The Knowledge we have gathered through working on this survey is being used in Malta and we aim to give them a secure future as well.

Seahorses in Wool, Dorset
Easter Saturday was a very special day for Wool in Dorset, with the opening of the new Seahorse Display Area at Woolbridge Business Centre. Those who attended were thrilled to see the amazing displays of these curious creatures performing beautiful ballets in natural looking surroundings.
Owner Tim Haywood has opened the center to educate and entertain visitors. He says sadly up to 150 million Seahorses are now believed to be taken from the wild each year to satisfy the Chinese Medicine Trade and the Aquarium and Curio Trades. It is hoped that our displays will help inform people of the Seahorses plight.
Entry is free, though a donation is encouraged to support The Seahorse Trust (Registered Charity No: 1086027 ).
Adding to the fun of the day was the ribbon-cutting by local celebrity, Professor Jack Cohen; co-author of Terry Pratchet’s Science of Discworld series, renowned biologist and Patron of the Seahorse Trust.

I know this is not seahorses but the principal is the same, our natural world is being destroyed at an ever increasing speed and as we speak there is a chance to put Manta Rays on CITES II, please go the Mega Fauna website to read about it. Please be warned the site contains some horrific images of dead Manta Rays.
It is a fact that if we do not all act very soon, our natural world will be unbalanced to a point of no return, we are already seeing the results in strange weather patterns, millions of species such as seahorses killed for a fruitless trade every year, our forests still being cut down like grass, even here in the UK money counts for more than our amazing countryside as stated by Richard Benyon the Environment Minister in his recent ‘public consultation’ over the proposed marine conservation zones. Please lobby, shout or even scream at anyone and everyone who can make a difference to the marine conservation zone process, the closing date is the 31st of March.

Please don’t forget to sign your friends up to be members or to adopt a seahorse, the more funds we can generate the more we can do.
http://www.marinemegafauna.org/cites-a-ray-of-hope-for-the-manta/

We were lucky enough to be covered in an article about our partners in Cambodia at Marine Conservation Cambodia. Paul, Zac and the team are doing some amazing work in surveying in the wild and captive breeding with some very unusual seahorses.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/7days/3296-kingdom-of-the-seahorse

There has become an opportunty for the right person to work on a seagrass project in partnership with many organisations. The role is Project Development Officer and it is based at The National Marine aquarium in Plymouth.