Juvenile endangered seahorses released into underwater 'hotels'
Experts from SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium have successfully bred and raised 111 juvenile White's seahorses - and have now released them into seahorse hotels.
The point of the hotels is to assist in their release back into the wild in Botany Bay, Sydney.
The species, also known as the Sydney Seahorse, has seen a dramatic population decline over the past decade and has been listed as 'Endangered' in New South Wales. It is now Australia's only threatened seahorse species and the second endangered seahorse species worldwide.
This is the third successful seahorse release into the wild, from the exciting conservation collaboration, implemented in December 2019, by SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium in Darling Harbour. In September 2021, aquarists paired up breeding adults for a third time.
Babies were born and raised from October 2021 and put on display in the onsite custom-built facilities, encouraging visitors to the aquarium to witness the enchanting creatures first-hand.
In July 2022, the juveniles were carefully tagged for future monitoring and injected just under their skin with coloured elastomer fish tags in a unique pattern, allowing them to be individually identified.
Daniel Sokolnikoff, Aquarist and Seahorse Expert at SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium, commented: "It means the world to the team at SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium, to lead the charge, collaborating with such highly esteemed experts and to be able to contribute towards the recovery of a species that really needs our help, in our own backyard. We have taken some really exciting steps over the last three years and will continue to do so for years to come."
