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...

Personal ads for seahorses?

Posted by Rill on Sep 7th, 2009 in News | 0 comments A clever advertising campaign for the seahorse exhibition at Monterey Bay Aquarium highlights the extremely unusual breeding habits of seahorses. To promote The Secret Lives of Seahorses the aquarium has run a series of mock personal ads for each of the fish featured in the exhibition. Each fish's name plays on its scientific name and gives clues about the seahorse's life: Eartha Excises sums up her Political Views as "Men should not only be pregnant, but should clean my house". Ken Kuda lists his Interests as "Hanging around, eating brine shrimp, dancing." You can even become a Facebook friend of the...

Subscribe to updates by email!

Posted by Rill on Jul 9th, 2009 in News | 0 comments I have now added a Feedburner email subscription option to the website! What does this mean? You can now receive website updates via email. You no longer have to keep checking back to see if there's something new on the website - you'll be sent an email instead. Simply type your email address into the box on the right (underneath the heading "get seahorse email updates") and press the "Subscribe" button. A  pop-up window will open asking you to type in some text to make sure it's an actual human being subscribing to the updates and not a spamming exercise.  Type in the text and hit the "Complete...

Great Seahorse Dog Toy!

Posted by Rill on Jun 26th, 2009 in News | 0 comments When my puppy Farfl went into the vet's today to have her stitches removed following her spay, she was whimpering and crying with nerves. She did not enjoy her previous visit at all! I felt guilty so I looked for a toy to buy her as a kind of consolation prize for having to go back there so soon. I couldn't believe it when I found a seahorse - perfect! It's from a great company called West Paw Design - they create dog and cat toys from recycled materials. The seahorse is made from recycled plastic bottles - it's fleece material. The toy is very soft and durable and wasn't significantly more expensive...

Seahorse Evolution Breakthrough

Posted by Rill on Jun 10th, 2009 in News | 0 comments A paper published last month in Biology Letters uses the pygmy pipehorse to explain how seahorses evolved. Two Australian researchers - a marine biologist from Macquarie University in Sydney and a biological oceanographer from Flinders University in Adelaide - have used DNA testing to explain one of the mysteries of seahorse evolution: when and why did they start swimming upright? Dr. Peter Teske and Professor Luciano Beheregaray used DNA testing to find the seahorse's closest relative - the pygmy pipehorse. The pygmy pipehorse has a tail like a seahorse - built to cling on to plants instead of use to...