A lucky Short Snouted Seahorse was released back to the wild yesterday after a co-ordinated team effort.
The male Seahorse was accidently caught in a Sand Eel net a week ago and the quick thinking fishermen decided to put it in a bucket and take it to the Blue Reef Aquarium in Portsmouth, rather than put it back into the sea. In this
The male Seahorse was accidently caught in a Sand Eel net a week ago and the quick thinking fishermen decided to put it in a bucket and take it to the Blue Reef Aquarium in Portsmouth, rather than put it back into the sea. In this case it probably saved the seahorses life because there were lots of seagulls trying to get some of the sand eels from the net and would most likely have eaten the seahorse. Normally we encourage fishermen to put the seahorses straight back into the sea (after recording the details for us) but with such a risk, in this case it was the right thing to do.
All the staff at Blue Reef aquarium were fantastic, they put the seahorse into quarantine and made sure he was healthy and feeding.
Meanwhile Jenny Mallinson who is a visiting researcher with the National Oceanography centre at Southampton University and who holds a Marine Management Organisations license to handle seahorses got all the various organisations and individuals co-ordinated together and a release plan was organised.
The Seahorse Trust who set up and run the British Seahorse Survey and co-ordinate the National Seahorse Database contacted the aquarium and provided advice on the keeping of the seahorse and how we could all release him back to the wild.
It was decided to release him into a secret location because we were not sure exactly where he came from. There are other seahorses at this location and we know there is suitable food and habitat for him to live in.
As the pictures show, Jenny’s partner Dr Ken Collins released the seahorse back into the water and he swam off into the weeds, hopefully to set up home with the other seahorses in the area.
Thank you to everyone involved but especially the quick thinking fishermen whose actions probably saved this amazing little seahorse from the beaks of very hungry seagulls.
