Happy Father’s Day!

Posted by Rill on Jun 20th, 2010 in Seahorse Facts, Seahorse Pictures | 0 comments This wonderful picture is by Paul Zahl from the NGS Image Collection and is included in a series on the National Geographic website in honour of Father's Day. The article is called "Best Animal Dads" and I'm happy to see that the seahorse is the first featured father! As you will know if you're a regular visitor to The Seahorse Shop, the male seahorse is a great father because he actually carries the fertilized eggs from the female and gives birth to live babies. In our family the seahorse is the symbol of my husband being a wonderful dad to our daughter and is the inspiration for this website. Click...

Spiny seahorses threatened in southern England

Posted by Rill on Apr 27th, 2010 in News, Seahorse Pictures | 0 comments A report in the Bournemouth Echo states that a recent drop in spiny seahorse numbers off the coast of southern England may be due to illegal clam fishing. It is illegal to disturb, injure or kill seahorses in the UK and they are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. The seagrass beds which is the spiny seahorses' natural habitat is also being protected by Poole Harbour Commissioners who have placed buoys around the seagrass beds and a Southern Sea Fisheries bylaw prohibits fishing there. As yet the actual cause of the seahorses' deaths is unknown and some put the blame on a combination of...

Male seahorse gives birth

Posted by Rill on Mar 24th, 2010 in Seahorse Facts, Seahorse Videos | 3 comments Here is a wonderful video I found on YouTube of a male seahorse giving birth to hundreds of baby seahorses. He pumps them out of the sac in his belly which starts off full and empties out with each push. The cutest part of the video (IMHO) is when he swims over to the female seahorse after giving birth. Too...

Seahorse pillow giveaway

Posted by Rill on Jan 23rd, 2010 in Seahorse Crafts | 0 comments Katie at the Let's Be Preppy blog is having a seahorse pillow giveaway! She has joined forces with All Modern.com to give away the gorgeous pillow shown to the left. There are four different ways to enter the draw: Post a comment on the original post or send an email to letsbepreppy at gmail dot com (I've typed it this way to stop spammers getting hold of Katie's email address) Write a blog post (just like I did) about the giveaway (this gives you two entries into the giveaway!) and email Katie to tell her about it. Go to All Modern.com and tell Katie about something else you like from their website...

Seahorse escapes flounder attack

Posted by Rill on Jan 19th, 2010 in Seahorse Videos | 2 comments Here's a great video I found on YouTube today where a seahorse manages to escape from a flounder who's lying in wait. The video is from Scubazoo - a site devoted to marine filming and photography. I get the impression that the flounder wasn't too interested in eating a bony...

Watch glass seahorses being made

Posted by Rill on Jan 13th, 2010 in Seahorse Videos | 3 comments Right before your eyes! Here are two great videos from YouTube. The first video shows Mauro Vianello, a Venetian Murano glass artist who films himself making pieces - today he came out with a seahorse! Watch how he crafts the creature from soft Venetian glass. The second video shows a Welsh glass artist making an even more ornate seahorse - the finished piece is shown above. And here are some glass seahorses on eBay in case this post has whetted your appetite! US Auctions Australian Auctions Austrian Auctions Belgian Auctions Canadian Auctions French Auctions German...