Seahorses gone missing

摘要

While Australia's horses are threatened by equine flu, their marine namesakes have bigger fish to worry about. SEAHORSE POPULATIONS appear to be lower inside marine reserves than outside, according to an ongoing study in Port Stephens on the NSW lowernorth coast. It's pretty hard to believe this though when you dive in the Port Stephens-Great Lakes Marine Park sanctuary zone with author of the study, David Harasti. Among cauliflower corals, sponges and gorgonian fans, he seems to spot a breeding pair of camouflaged White's seahorses every couple of minutes. But just a few hundred metres away, at another of David's research sites outside the marine park, more than three times as many seahorses wait patiently for his visits. In one strip more than 1000 seahorses were living within 50 x 100 m.