From the wider efforts to recover Sussex’s underwater habitats, to the sheltered environments of Chichester Harbour, seahorses have become powerful symbols of hope for marine recovery and the fragile beauty of our coastal ecosystems.
The south coast of England is home to two species of seahorse, the Short-snouted and Long-snouted Seahorses. As their name suggests, the two species can be told apart by the length of their snout – the Long-snouted also has long spines coming off its body, and is also sometimes known as the Spiny Seahorse.
The Long-snouted Seahorse prefers seagrass habitats, making it relatively rare in Sussex, where seagrass is limited to a few small areas within Chichester and Pagham Harbours. The Short-snouted Seahorse is a bit less picky and can be found along much of the Sussex coastline, often clinging to strands of seaweed in sheltered coastal waters.
Short-snouted Seahorses are somewhat mysterious and relatively little is known about their habits, particularly over the winter where they appear to disappear from the coast. It is widely agreed that they come to near-shore waters over the warmer months to breed, moving into deeper, offshore waters in the winter to take cover from the stormy seas – being so little and fragile this makes total sense!
Seahorses are predators - they use their curled tail to hold on to something, allowing them to stay in one place and wait for unsuspecting prey to drift past.
It may come as a surprise that Seahorses are actually a type of fish, sitting in the same family as pipefish and sea dragons. They are quite unique as fish go – they swim ‘upright’, grip with their tails, and have true male pregnancies.
Short-snouted Seahorses are protected and feature in three of Sussex’s Marine Conservation Zones: Selsey Bill & The Hounds, Beachy Head West and Beachy Head East. This means that activities in these protected sites are managed to ensure the species is not harmed or impacted – this includes fishing as well as other licensable activities such as development and dredging.
Written by guest author Sarah Ward, Marine Policy Officer, Sussex Wildlife Trust.