Argyll’s Scottish Sealife Sanctuary has record week for seahorse births

Argyll’s Scottish Sealife Sanctuary at Benderloch, near Oban is a world leader in the difficult job of breeding seahorses. The first week in August this year has set a record for the number of births achieved, with broods born every day for four days. Staff say it’s the biggest ‘baby boom’ they’ve ever had and think that something has triggered a breeding frenzy in the mythical little sea creatures. Births have produced around two hundred ‘slender seahorse’ babies and around seventy ‘big bellied seahorse’ babies – and they expect more still. The biggest of the babies is only about five millimetres long. Imagine feeding them.

The photograph on the left is of a Seahore taken in the gulf of Aquaba in Jordan. Taken by Mohammed Al Momany, the image is in the Public Domain.