Happy Surprise: Two Rare Seahorses Discovered On Beach

On the shore of a German island, two uncommon short-snouted seahorses were found, giving hope that the population of the small marine fish is recovering nearly a century after having all but disappeared.

The startling discovery on the East Frisian island of Wangerooge, Germany, happened during what’s called a flushing seam inspection, an activity designed to clear beaches of garbage and dead birds.

Recent years have seen other isolated reports of the rare species: the Internet portal BeachExplorer, for example, received 23 reports of short-snouted seahorse in the North Sea. In recent years, there were isolated findings of the marine fish also in the Wadden Sea where it hadn’t been seen since the 1930s. According to the Wadden Sea Protection Association, there are more than a hundred seahorse species known around the world – all measuring between 1.5 and 3.5 cm – and the rare short-snouted one has no or short fringes on its head, a snout shorter than a third of the length of its head, and its body curved upwards.