Beyond the Unimaginable: the Seadragon and the Seahorse

Surely there is no other creature as outlandish and wildly imagined as the sea dragon or the sea horse.  I simply had to find a way to put one or both into a story, and eventually they made their way into 'The Sea Urchin', an unsettling tale about a waif child born of the sea who lures a boy into her watery world, never to be seen again.  The sea dragon and the sea horse barely feature, but I liked to imagine them anyway; they fit well into this tale of weird and wonderful creations that surely must have been imagined by a Universe on acid.  Think about it for a minute.  Sea anemones, jellyfish, angler fish, sea horses....they are all so alien, so otherworldly; barely conceivable.

Here are some interesting facts about sea dragons: they are small delicate fish - yes, fish - found near Australia.  There are only two types; the leafy and the weedy.  I particularly like the leafy sea dragon because it is such a master of camouflage among plants, and is rarely eaten despite having numerous predators.  Like the sea horse, the male carries the eggs and also cares for them after they have been hatched, which can take up to nine weeks.  These are the only creatures in the world where this happens (that we know of).  The babies take a year to grow to adult size. 

Closely related is the sea horse, whose Latin name, Hippocampus, means 'horse caterpillar' (yes, truly). They have excellent eyesight and their eyes work independently of each other (rather like chameleons) so they can look backwards and forwards at the same time.  Whoever dreamt up that?

They are carniverous, eating shrimp and plankton, and suck up prey into their toothless mouth with long, thin snouts, like vacuum cleaners.  Their snouts even expand if the prey is large, rather like a snake does when swallowing something bigger than itself.  Seahorses can't chew; they digest the food as they eat it. And baby seahorses eat a staggering 3000 pieces of food every day!  It's surprising they don't end up the size of sharks.  But only one in a thousand babies survive.

Something else I love about seahorses: they pair for life.  And they meet first thing in the morning to reinforce their pair bonding, with an elaborate courtship display.  As they approach each other, they change colour.  And they can also change colour very quickly to disguise themselves whenever they need to (again, in the same way as chameleons).

Here's something else you may not know: seahorses are poor swimmers (presumably sea dragons are too).  Their dorsal fins beat 30-70 times per second to propel them forwards and their pectoral fins help to steer and give stability.  There are between 30 and 40 species worldwide and new ones still being discovered.   But they are also under serious threat, thanks to traditional Chinese medicine (which takes up to 150 million seahorses per year), the Curio Trade (leaving them to die in the sun and them selling them as souvenirs) and the pet trade, where most die within a short timeframe.

I have decided that I am going to find an organisation that is trying to save the seahorse, and support it .  (I am assuming the sea dragon is not endangered: I may have to research this further.) A creature so unique, so quirky and beautiful and vulnerable, whose disappearance from the earth may not be largely noticed by anyone or anything, but whose absence would certainly leave this world a poorer, duller place.  I wonder if anyone will join me?

With thanks to www.theseahorsetrust.org and www.a-z-animals.com for the information in this blog.

My story 'The Sea Urchin' can be found and read for free at: http://shortstorysunday.com/2015/05/31/sea-urchin-by-julie-dawn/