Be Aware! That's our motto.

IMPORTANT!

Here's an interesting video from the California Academy of Sciences that Ken the Seahorse Hunter doesn't want you to see.

See, Ken Kull doesn't open many books. On his blog he spews untrue facts (web link below). He thinks that he is "saving" the seahorses, saying,

(note: Ken has trouble spelling)
"i take them from there life in the cruel ocean...the natural habatats of these animals are cold and full of sharks and the like, and with all those predeters and what have you, well, lets just say its a good thing im there to save them."

Well, if you just saw the video, you now have seen for yourself how this is very UNTRUE! The main predator of seahorses is MAN. Here's more

" I can catch you all the seahorses you need. I get you 100's of them."

"anyay, my favorite animals are seahorses. i catch all kinds of seahorses and sell them as pets. so, if you need a cute little seahorse for your aquarium, just give me a holler and i will go snatch it from that mean ocean and give it a much better home in your home! "

See what I mean? Seahorses are under attack!

Ken's blog: How to destroy all seahorses.

Seashell SeaScience!

Sea Shell Spirals

Today's story is about the cutting edge science being done with seashells. Understanding the gifts of the ocean is an important thing for us humans to be doing. Think of all the treasures from the sea! You should learn all about them!

Seahorse SeaScience

Link to the article:
Covert Creatures: The Clandestine Lives of Seahorses

Here's a lovely story about the science behind seahorses. Humans try to unravel the seahorse mystery. Can land dwellers ever understand the arcane power of the sea?

Dr. Helen Scales knows about as much as any dry person.

Generally what is agreed is that there are around 39 or 40 species of seahorses.

Seahorses are everywhere!

The chances are, if you go to a piece of coastline, and your toes aren’t completely freezing when you dip them in the sea, you might see a seahorse. They live along most of the coastlines.

They have this reputation for being this wonderful exotic creature but they do live all the way through the oceans.

They get pretty big.

The biggest is the Big-belly seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis) from Australia. They are a foot long from head to tail. The smallest ones are these pygmy seahorses [there are nine species], which can be just infinitesimally small, less than an inch. They would stretch out on a penny; they are really tiny. On average, most seahorse species are around two or three inches long.

Here are some more fun facts:

Seahorses have the honor of being the only fish in the seas that have a neck.

If you watch a seahorse, you’ll see that it puff its cheeks in and out. That’s it breathing.

You can come back to the same spot and, three years later, see the same seahorse sitting there.

It’s the men that get pregnant, not the girls. Seahorses are the only animal we have ever found throughout the animal kingdom in which this happens.

They will dance these beautiful, mesmerizing courtship dances together. They twine their tails and spin round and round while [both] he male and female change their skin to different colors.

Seahorses have skin, not scales. That’s another strange seahorse fact. Most fish have scales but seahorses just have skin.

Seahorses have VORTEX power!

Seahorse can line up that snout with a tiny minute shrimp and then all of a sudden it sucks in a vortex of water through its mouth with those big cheeks, and the shrimp comes with it, and before it knows it, it’s become a seahorse snack.

Despite all her book learning, Dr. Scales acknowledges that human learning fails to encompass the glory of the seahorse!

There’s so much we still don’t know about seahorses.

Go forth, and embrace the majesty of the horses of the sea!