Wondering about Studland’s Seahorses

Back in July, I spent nine hours diving at Studland Bay looking for seahorses – without any success. Conditions were perfect. The shallow bay was flat calm and the sun shone through clear water. Part of the time I was joined by seahorse guru Steve Trewhella but even he couldn’t find the elusive animal.

As it happened, they turned up in Devon and I moved on to have very successful seahorse filming time there.

My dives at Studland were still rewarding. I picked up lovely footage of the habitat in beautiful conditions and was joined by a spectacular school of bass; they make me think of a ghost fish, the way they appear from nowhere and slide almost invisibly through the sun beams. But I am left wondering why seahorses are so scarce at Studland when it used to be a breeding stronghold for them. Seahorse numbers peaked in 2010 but that is also when the greatest effort was put in to record them. Diver survey hours are nothing like they were then. New regulations introduced to protect seahorses have put divers off looking for them and made some fearful of reporting chance encounters.

In July, Steve thought the season might be late starting as juvenile animals like black bream, red mullet, cuttlefish and sticklebacks were also absent. Studland had seen a cold spring and, despite the fantastic start to summer, the water was slower to warm than usual. Recent dives have shown that this was part of the story – Steve told me the other juveniles have now arrived, but still no seahorses.

It’s easy to blame boat anchors and mooring chains – there is no question they damage the habitat – but it’s hard to know if this is the only reason for seahorse decline at Studland. There must be other factors at play, but I don’t know what, and it appears no one else does either. I’m not aware of any scientific projects trying to find out. (Please do get in touch if you know of any projects in progress or in the pipeline.)

I so hope these beautiful and rare animals begin to return to breed at Studland next year.