Enlarge image
Two short-snouted seahorses in the hands of a nature conservation warden on Wangerooge
Photo: Peter Cake Book-Hanken / dpa
Nature conservation wardens have discovered two rare short-snouted seahorses on the East Frisian island of Wangerooge. The animals were discovered last week during a so-called flushing seam inspection, in which the beaches are actually searched for garbage and dead birds, said the managing director of the Mellumrat nature conservation and research association, Mathias Heckroth. The nature conservationists on the north beach noticed the two lifeless animals, which were only a few centimeters tall, in quick succession. Experts from the national park administration identified both animals as short-snouted seahorses (Hippocampus hippocampus).
It is not clear why the animals were washed up on the beach.
"It's strange that two seahorses were found at the same time," Heckroth said.
Because the animals have actually largely disappeared from the Wadden Sea since the 1930s.
At that time, a fungal infection destroyed many seagrass meadows.
"With that, the habitat of the animals disappeared," said Heckroth.
However, isolated finds have been reported in recent years.
They could be a sign that the population in the Wadden Sea is slowly recovering.
The Internet portal Beach Explorer, on which finds of many animal species are registered, reports a total of 23 reports for the short-snouted seahorse in the North Sea.
More than a hundred species known worldwide
Most recently, the discovery of two living short-snouted seahorses near Borkum in summer 2020 caused a stir.
A boy initially found an animal in the harbor, and shortly thereafter fishermen found a second on board a cutter.
Both ended up in the island's aquarium.
In autumn 2020, researchers from the Thünen Institute for Sea Fishing in Bremerhaven also discovered two seahorses in their nets while capturing young animals.
The two animals from Wangerooge are now to be included in the collection of the State Museum of Nature and Man in Oldenburg.
The conservation wardens secured the seahorses and put them on ice.
According to the Wadden Sea Protection Association in Husum, there are around a hundred species of seahorses worldwide that grow between 1.5 and 35 centimeters.
Short- and long-snouted seahorses are known from Europe's coasts - the short-snouted ones are more common in the Wadden Sea.
It has no or short fringes on its head, its snout is shorter than a third of the head length and curved upwards.
Seahorses slurp up small prey like plankton with their trunks in less than a hundredth of a second.
The lightning-fast sucking action produces an audible click.
bam/dpa