THE AMAZING SEAHORSE
To celebrate one of the oceans' most amazing creatures Newquay's Blue Reef Aquarium is holding a special weekend celebration of the seahorse and its close cousin the pipefish (May 15th-16th).
The aquarium will be holding a series of special feeding demonstrations, talks and exhibitions over the weekend aimed at raising awareness of these graceful but sadly endangered creatures.
Younger visitors will also be able to take part in a seahorse quiz trail through the aquarium.
The launch of the celebrations could hardly have come at a better time as staff are currently looking after hundreds of tiny baby pipefish which were born at the aquarium over the last two weeks.
Manager Richard Smith said: "The aquarium now has seven different species of seahorse and pipefish on display, including native British spiny seahorses and pipefish.
"All the species we have on display are captive bred - many of them here at the aquarium and we're hoping the weekend's event will help raise awareness of the dangers these amazing fish face in the wild," he added.
The tiny pipefish have been moved to special nursery tanks alongside the most recent batches of baby seahorses - some of which are nearly fully grown.
"We're really proud of the captive breeding successes we have had both with pipefish and with seahorses and it will be great to watch the youngsters growing and developing over the coming months and years," added Richard.
The seahorse is unique in the animal kingdom in that it is the male rather than the female which carries the babies and gives birth to them via a special brood pouch on their stomach.
In the wild virtually all of the approximate 35 species of seahorse are now under threat from a variety of sources.
These include loss of habitat, pollution, the souvenir trade and traditional Far East medicine - believed to account for the deaths of 20 million seahorses annually.
The seahorses at the Blue Reef Aquarium are part of a captive-breeding programme which aims to ease the pressure on wild populations.
