Time for the boys to take charge in Monaco
Campaign to reintroduce the short-snouted seahorse to the Monegasque coast
The Prince Albert II Foundation has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help finance a programme that will aim to reintroduce the seahorse into Monaco's Marine Reserve.
In partnership with the Paul Ricard Institut, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation has developed a programme to reintroduce the species into the Larvotto marine reserve and to establish a population of 'hippocampus hippocampus' along the coastline. Also known as the short-snouted seahorse these wonderful creatures are threatened with extinction and subjected to many different problems such as pollution, destruction of natural habitat, accidental capture by fishermen, and removal for private aquariums.
The seahorse is often seen as a somewhat unusual or mythical creature, looking nothing like an actual fish they have several bizarre traits. Firstly the head and neck shape that is suggestive of a horse and then their lack of scales; they are in fact covered in a layer of thin skin. Perhaps their most intriguing quality is that the males of the species are the ones who give birth. In this situation the female actually deposits the eggs into the males 'pouch' where he then carries them for between 9 and 45 days, until the tiny new seahorses are born, fully formed.
The plan it to reintroduce around 70 seahorses in 2016. As soon as they have become acclimatised to their new environment, it is hoped that they will be able to reproduce. For more information about the project, or to donate you can visit the Monaco Crowdfunding website directly, and watch the short video below.
