by Tami Weiss | Jan 7, 2016 | Conservation, Fish, Opinion, Reef, Science, Seahorses
Dwarf Seahorses among Galaxaura subverticillata, one of the macroalgaes they associate with in the wild. 2016 will see wild Dwarf Seahorse Hippocampus zosterae gain new protections in the waters around Florida. These regulations are designed to limit their harvest from the wild in order to sustainably manage Dwarf Seahorse populations. The proposed regulations: Recreational bag limit: reduce the current limit of five (5) of each species of seahorse (within the 20 organism aggregate bag limit for all Marine Life species) to five (5) seahorses total per person per day Commercial trip limit: reduce the current daily commercial limit from 400 dwarf seahorses to 200 per person or per vessel (whichever is less) Establish an annual commercial quota of 25,000 individual dwarf seahorses and provide for closure of the recreational and by Joe Rowlett | Dec 17, 2015 | Conservation, Reefs in Art, Science, Sustainability
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been counting the days until the BBC broadcasts its upcoming nature documentary on the Great Barrier Reef, presented by the legendary Sir David Attenborough. Now, at long last, we are less than two weeks away from the airing of the... by Fused Jaw | Nov 30, 2015 | Conservation, Fish, Reef, Science, Seahorses
Seahorse mid strike; hyoid bone visible which is part of the complex musculoskeletal system seahorses utilize in suction feeding. This can be damaged easily. Photo by Tami Weiss You may have heard of ‘weak snick’, a common description of a clinical sign in syngnathids whereby attempts to feed appear weakened, that is, they don’t produce the nice ‘click’ sound you like to hear when healthy syngnathids strike at their prey. Multiple causes have been attributed to this particular clinical sign however in some severe progressive cases; this has been suspected to be due to a nutritional myopathy, which simply means a muscle disease caused by a nutritional imbalance. The suspected nutritional myopathy can present in many ways including: lethargy, weak snick, inappetence, and in severe unresolved cases, by Tami Weiss | Nov 29, 2015 | Conservation, Seahorses
Seahorses can be found along many shorelines frequented by people. Photo by Caio R. N. Periera cc-by/nc So you’ve found a seahorse, and you want to keep it. Or maybe you stumbled across one washed ashore, and are unsure what to do next. This question comes up from time to time. It’s not frequent, but it does happen enough that I wanted to provide some guidance. Release It! The best thing to do is to release the seahorse back where you found it, if at all possible. The sooner you can do this, the better off the seahorse will be. This is especially true for those found washed up on the beach, as can happen from time to time due to seahorse’s poor swimming abilities. by Admin | May 20, 2015 | Conservation, Science
It’s been about a year since we reported our best success to date with rearing yellow tang, having gotten larvae through to day 83. Since then we’ve had some repeated successes getting the larvae past the first month or so, but never any quite as far along as that cohort from last January. Frustratingly, we seem to have taken a few steps backward again (as seems more common in this field than not), and are now struggling to keep the larvae going past the first week. We have been revisiting the protocols used from that successful period to ask a lot of questions pertaining to why that worked then, and not now. Yellow Tang larvae reared at OI. A=14 dph, B=24 dph, C=36 dph, D=45 dph, E=50 dph, F=60 dph
