“Hotels” for Seahorses Help Them Get Off the Endangered Species List

Sydney Harbor’s White’s seahorse has been listed as an endangered species since 2017, so Australians have been setting up seahorse “hotels” in a bid to restore their population.

The hotels, made of chicken wire – of which corals, sponges and algae grown on, attracting seahorse prey – are set up around the harbor by SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium, University of Technology Sydney and several government agencies. The hotels quickly proved to feel like home for the seahorses.

SEA LIFE Sydney also launched a new breeding program in November, in which they collected breeding pairs from Sydney Harbor including pregnant males to help repopulate the species. A big part of the recovery will be the deploying of more hotels for these captive-bred seahorses.

Biologist Robbie McCracken of SEA LIFE Sydney explains that once the seahorses in captivity are big enough to release – by May 2020 – the researchers will tag them for long-term monitoring to ensure they are able to adapt to being back in the wild.