Almost 100 years ago, the short-beaked seahorse disappeared from the German Wadden Sea because a fungal infection in the 1930s destroyed almost all seagrass meadows – thus destroying the habitat of the cute animals. Now the cute creatures seem to have returned to the North Sea.
Short-beaked seahorses, which were thought to have disappeared long ago, are increasingly appearing on German North Sea beaches. In the last two years alone, 70 finds of washed-up specimens of the species have been recorded in the BeachExplorer portal database. For comparison: between 1949 and 2019 there were only twelve reports. Scientists are now investigating the question of where the animals come from.
“Finds in the Wadden Sea are becoming increasingly common”
Where the animals come from and whether permanent populations may exist in the German North Sea has not yet been clearly determined. “The findings show that seahorses are becoming increasingly common in the flushing areas of the Wadden Sea,” says Hans-Ulrich Rösner, head of the WWF Wadden Sea office. “Even though the animals are still rare, it is still a cause for joy.”
The habitat of seahorses is seaweed, algae or seagrass meadows, but these are not known in the German Wadden Sea. However, such habitats exist off the Dutch coast and in the English Channel. That’s why researchers think the animals drifted from there and washed up on the German coast.
This is also supported by the fact that only young male animals have been found so far. If there were a permanent population, older or female animals would also have to be discovered over time, but according to the scientists, this is not yet the case.
Men are responsible for pregnancy
In seahorses, bony fish, the males become pregnant. The females produce the eggs and inject them into the male’s abdominal pouch during sexual intercourse, where they are fertilized by the male sperm.
Depending on the species, females lay between 150 and 2,000 eggs in the male’s brood pouch. There, the eggs are surrounded by a tissue that mainly regulates the embryos’ respiration by absorbing carbon dioxide from the eggs and releasing oxygen to them.
From birth, the seahorse’s offspring are immediately left to fend for themselves and the small animals immediately begin to hunt for their prey, plankton and small crustaceans.
Source: Krone
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