Curious and dainty creatures of the sea, the pygmy seahorse has drawn interest of marine biologists and divers alike. CHOO CHEE KUANG goes underwater and brings the plight of the pygmy seahorse to surface.

Written by Choo Chee Kuang on 25 Jun 2009 with 0 comments. Be the first!

Plunging into the turquoise waters, we made a quick and steady descent, paddling behind our dive master down the edge of the steep drop-off adorned with colourful sea fans. With me was Yee Ling, my student working on the pygmy seahorse for her Masters degree, and Damiding, the divemaster. Three of us parted from the other divers and headed towards a secluded dive spot.

At 33m down, Damiding slowed down and began inspecting some sea fans overhanging from a cliff. He seemed to know what to look for, because it didn't take him long before his eyes spied a 2ft high orange-coloured sea fan. Intrigued at his intense scrutiny, we moved closer to his side. He pointed at a tiny creature- it was the pygmy seahorse, smaller than my thumbnail with a body as delicate as the slender branch of the sea fan. Our excitement at our first pygmy seahorse encounter was apparent from the profusion of bubbles erupting from our mouthpieces. Meanwhile, less than a foot away, on the same sea fan was another, slightly smaller seahorse with a rotund belly. Excited by how easily and quickly Damiding had spotted the two pygmy seahorses, we scanned other gorgonian branches to see if we could spot more but we had no success.

Frustrated by our futile search, we were consoled by the fact that the pygmy seahorse was only discovered recently. The first pygmy seahorse, Hippocampus bargibanti, was discovered in 1969, and the second species, H. minotaur, was only named three decades later. The species right before us - Hippocampus denise - is the third and smallest among the three species. It was named in 2003, after Denise Tackett who along with prominent seahorse biologist Sara Lourie discovered them in Indonesia. I had the privilege to see those tiny preserved seahorses when Sara dropped by in Malaysia a year before she published her report. Those specimens have since become type specimens in some of the world's renowned museums.

The reasons why pygmy seahorses were discovered late are unsurprising, given their diminutive size, and body colouration that matches the stems and polyps of their sea fan hosts. The depths in which the pygmy seahorses typically live, between 25 to 40 m deep, imposed a limit on the duration of dives, and their environment is often plagued by strong underwater currents. These factors put constraints on field scientific studies hence limiting our understanding of the pygmy seahorse. Hovering next to a cliff that jutted up 600-m from the seafloor that formed the famous Sipadan Island, we set out to discover more about this fascinating creature. I took out a 10x magnifying glass, zooming in to inspect the finer details of the pygmy seahorses. The bodies were smooth, with a few bumps, the snouts were slender and short. The one with a rotund belly was a male - a trademark for all 38 male seahorse species in the Syngnathidae family; while the other could possibly be its female partner. Anecdotal reports have cited that pygmy seahorses were often seen in pairs, although our subsequent surveys revealed that as many as 13 individuals were spotted on one sea fan.

Next to the eyes, the gills were pulsating rapidly, perhaps it was a little nervous realising its camouflage had failed. Yee Ling tried to take a photo of each seahorse, since we were not able to tag it. But each time the camera closed in, the pygmy seahorse shied away, or hid behind a gorgonian branch. Frustrated after a few attempts, Damiding showed us a trick: he placed his palm on the hind side of the sea fan and the pygmy seahorse instantly turned around. Snap! We managed to get the snapshots. Sometimes, the pygmy seahorses got too irritated that they swam away to other sea fans. Clearly, this cute little creature was not fond of being cuddled.

Ethics and Sustainability

Having seen their evasive reactions, it occurred to me that many beautiful pygmy seahorse photos displayed on the internet and in dive magazines could not have been taken without physically disturbing the pygmy seahorse, or altering or manipulating their behaviour. This speculation was later supported by interviews with recreational divers and dive masters. On the other hand, empirical observations suggest that the use of flashlights could shock sea creatures, which is why oceanariums set out rules such as flashlight prohibition. For small creatures that have low mobility and high site-fidelity such as the pygmy seahorse, up-close flash would ly be deleterious. Such a practice, however, is too common among underwater photographers and no marine park regulations in Malaysia currently rule this practice as potentially harmful.

"Even in the absence of direct physical contact with the creature, there is still some form of harassment."

We later learned that some popular dive sites in Semporna islands, which host at least two pygmy seahorse species, are visited by hundreds of divers daily. The poor creatures probably had to endure blinding flashes like a glamorous Hollywood star. After dark, flashlights are more vigorously used. Like other animals, the pygmy seahorse needs some sleep too.

Even more alarming was when we found out that there were incidents where pygmy seahorses were transferred to shallower waters (18 m) so that beginner divers could see them. Evidently, pygmy seahorses are hugely popular, spurring on the already lucrative diving industries. Due to business competition, some dive operators resort to transferring pygmy seahorses, with or without their gorgonian hosts, to some secluded spots in order to customize pygmy seahorse tours.

What is the potential harm of such diving ethics to pygmy seahorses? Will their access to mate and food resources be compromised as they are transferred to an alien environment? Will increased divers' visits, irresponsible underwater photography and physical harassment alter their behaviours, causing stress, injuries and mortalities? Many other species have become endangered or even extinct. For the pygmy seahorse, which is on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals, we are not even close to understanding how long they can live, what kind of food they feed, how many offspring they can produce, how far do they disperse; not to mention their numbers, their ecological roles, and how - in the absence of baseline data - have human activities impacted their population in the past.

"Will the future of cryptic species be brighter if they continue to remain cryptic?"

Are pygmy seahorses in other parts of the world also suffering the same fate? If this is true, what will become of their future?

As these questions lingered in my mind, the low air supply signaled that it was time to surface. Perhaps time too, is running out for the pygmy seahorse.