Just like magic a seahorse is back...

[Seven Spades]

Yes it's all true the lack of boats anchoring in Studland has allowed a seahorse to migrate along the coast(from where?) to its favourite habitat without fear that an anchor will be dropped on it's head.

Endangered species of seahorse returns to former Dorset stronghold

 

[wizard]

The only person in the UK delighted with the pandemic cos his sea horses have been allowed to breed without all those nasty boats ruining their breeding grounds!

 

[Stemar]

Well, they've been busy little buggers, because because the breeding season runs from April to October. Or maybe they were queuing up just outside Studland, just waiting for us to go away.

I'm no expert, but I want someone who knows a bit to explain how a population reduced to next to nothing, allegedly, can suddenly reappear in less than three months. Over a few years, fine, a few months, no.

 

[oldharry]

Well, they've been busy little buggers, because because the breeding season runs from April to October. Or maybe they were queuing up just outside Studland, just waiting for us to go away.

I'm no expert, but I want someone who knows a bit to explain how a population reduced to next to nothing, allegedly, can suddenly reappear in less than three months. Over a few years, fine, a few months, no.

It doesnt quite work like that. In winter they migrate out in to deeper water, then migrate inshore in spring to breed in the shallow sheltered waters of most south coast harbours and estuaries. Nobody knows how they decide where to go, but in Studland it is well known to local fishermen that they come and go, and a gap of several years without seeing them is nothing unusual. Instead of boats being the culprits, how about the weather patterns overt the last 10 years? A series of cold predominantly wet summers, some of the worst storms on record, and now suddenly what is likely to be the finest, sunniest spring on record. Inshore fishermen on the Dorset coast frequently see them on their gear but do not report sightings because they fear SHT will interfere with their fishing grounds. even allowing for 'fishermens tales, I do not beleive they are anything like as rare as they are made out. Quite simply they are small, masters at hiding, and disguise, and able to change colour to blend in to their background. Small wonder they are rarely seen! But they are there, be sure of that!

Other factors that would affect their choice of breeding grounds could include turbidity, pollutants, agricultural chemical run -off (near enough zero this spring). Boats? The peak year for SHT sightings in 2008 was a decent summer, and they shared the Bay (I wont say happily, but they stayed put and multiplied) with thousands of boats anchoring over them! The ten or more years preceding were if you like the boom years for boating prior to the 2008 crash. Since then as we all know boat ownership and use has dwindled under both financial pressures and a series of disasterous summers.

What changed over 2008 -12 was the number of seahorse tourists, diving at Studland. It is well known that excessive exposure will cause them to move on. By 2013 sightings dwindled to just a few specimens During the stormy period there was a major shift in channel populations of a range of species, and only in recent years has that begin to stabilise again.

I would dearly love to know how a team of 3 or 4 or so divers can cover 100+ hectares of eelgrass in a few hours diving and say with certainty there are no seahorses in Studland?

 

[Stemar]

I would dearly love to know how a team of 3 or 4 or so divers can cover 100+ hectares of eelgrass in a few hours diving and say with certainty there are no seahorses in Studland?

It's simple, they asked this lady, and she spoke to her head ostler

 

[oldharry]

You're right! Its about the right science level!