With humans away, the animals are coming out to play. Whether it be thriving sea turtles in Florida or buzzing wild bees in Albania, there have been many wildlife success stories to come out of the coronavirus lockdowns.
Today, we have another one of those stories to share with you. Off the coast of Dorset, England, divers counted the largest number of protected spiny seahorses they have seen in the seagrass meadows off Dorset since 2008.
According to the Seahorse Trust, divers discovered at least 16 seahorses, including pregnant males and two babies, in a single dive. That’s a lot considering no seahorses had been seen in dives since 2018 when a dead one was found. Trust founder Neil Garrick-Maidment attributed the increase to a reduction in people, boat traffic, and anchors, which typically damage the seagrass that seahorses typically inhabit.
The number of seahorses had not been seen during a single survey in the area since 2008 when monitoring began in the bay, he added. That year about 40 spiny seahorses were recorded, but only two live ones had been spotted since 2015.
