A long-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus guttulatus) has become the first patient of its kind to enter the Fundació Oceanogràfic’s Sea Animal Recovery and Conservation Area (ARCA) after appearing stranded on El Altet beach in Alicante. At the marine hospital, the animal has undergone different check-ups -similar to those carried out on sea turtles- to diagnose the problem and be able to carry out the necessary treatments. After several weeks and once recovered, the seahorse returned this Thursday to the waters of Calpe. The long-snouted seahorse is included in the Spanish Catalog of Endangered Species.
It was some bathers who spotted it near the coast, stranded, and alerted the El Altet Interpretation Center. The technicians of the NGO Ambiens, within the Seahorse project for the monitoring and conservation of seahorses, were able to rescue it and transfer it to the Valencian aquarium facilities for its recovery. There it has remained near a Posidonia meadow, an area where this species lives.
According to the Fundació Oceanogràfic, when a seahorse is seen stranded near the beach, it should not be touched under any circumstances. “Very few such tiny animals have been able to arouse the sympathy of humans such as seahorses and also the attraction to turn them, unfortunately, into an object of consumption as souvenirs,” the organization said in a statement.
“This excessive desire and other factors such as accidental capture and the destruction of their habitats have made some species from the Mediterranean Sea appear on the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)”, they add. For this reason, study, protection and conservation actions have been undertaken, but this is the first time that a seahorse has been rescued and subsequently reintroduced to the sea on the coast of the Valencian Community.
The Fundació Oceanogràfic, within its lines of conservation of species, maintains a collaboration agreement with the NGO Asociación Ambiens, to carry out awareness-raising and research projects, with which it seeks to disseminate information about the current lack of knowledge of the state of conservation of seahorses in the Valencian Community.
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