Peter with some of the young seahorses

One of the lucky seahorses back in the sea!

Peter Guille had a strange surprise when he was out fishing this week off the Blanchard Reef when he noticed a live seahorse in the mouth of a pollack he caught. He removed the seahorse and put it back in the sea but when he gutted the less fortunate pollack he found that its stomach was full of young seahorses and a few of them were still alive. He put the seahorses in a bucket of water and showed them to me when he returned to the harbour. They were short-snouted seahorses, one of the two species that live around the British Isles and the one most often seen around the Channel Islands, although reports are rare. We decided that the best chance for the live ones was for me to put my diving gear on and take them back to the seabed. I took the four live seahorses, which were about an inch long, and released them outside Creux Harbour. I’m not sure whether they will survive their ordeal but this fascinating encounter shows that there must be good numbers of seahorses out there, even if I hardly ever see any when I’m diving!
Pictures by Sue Daly

Another one of the lucky seahorses, home at last.

The pollack’s last meal