Nature has these things. There were 120 seahorses that started the journey, in two drums, to one of the existing sanctuaries in the Ria Formosa, but it was these 120, «plus thirty or so», that ended up being introduced into their natural habitat, on Thursday, the November 24th, thanks to the miracle of life.
These one hundred and a half seahorses are helping to recover a species that, in the Ria Formosa, is on the verge of extinction – despite the fact that, at the beginning of the century, the population of these animals, in the Algarve lagoon area, was among those of highest density worldwide.
«What we have seen is that, since the sanctuary was created, the population has been growing, mainly in this area, but also outside it. With environmental protection and requalification, we have many more seahorses», guarantees Jorge Palma, researcher at the Center for Marine Sciences (CCMAR) at the University of Algarve (UAlg).
And sometimes this increase occurs under the most unexpected conditions.
«Yes, we have 120 seahorses here and a few more (laughs). We had a male with juveniles inside the pouch, which released them, and now we are going to introduce both adults and juveniles into the wild. It happened just now, during transport, it was at the end of the “pregnancy”, so to speak. The juveniles have just been born and are perfectly viable», added the seahorse specialist, who is raising this species in captivity, at the Ramalhete Marine Station, in Faro.
“You are seeing more seahorses, particularly here in the sanctuary area (protected area). We are optimistic because the population is increasing and, since last year, we have been seeing more. There is an appreciable increase», reinforced Rui Santos, who is also a researcher at the Center for Marine Sciences (CCMAR) at the University of Algarve and coordinator of the SeagHorse project (Seagrass and Seahorse Restoration), within which this restocking action took place.
These were two of the researchers who yesterday donned their wetsuits, jumped into the water and released the seahorses born in captivity, in their natural habitat, in order to ensure that they were safe.
And that implied, from the outset, the acclimatization of the seahorses, inside the drums in which they were transported, and a waiting period, so that the current in the estuary slowed down.
«Seahorses cling to structures at the bottom with their tail. If we release them with a chain, we run the risk that they won't catch on right away and end up being dragged to a less favorable area. We are releasing them in an area where we did an intervention to introduce seagrass, which is the ideal habitat for them, and they could be dragged from that area», explained Jorge Palma.
This is the second release of seahorses at this sanctuary, created in 2020. In both cases, specimens of the species were reintegrated into nature hippocampus hippocampus, the least abundant in the estuary of this type of fish, there being, «at best, one seahorse of this species for ten hippocampus guttulatus».
The animals that are released remain under the eye of researchers, even after they return to their natural habitat.
«We come here monthly or bimonthly. All animals were photographed before being released, because it is possible to identify animal by animal. That's why we know if they are the ones we released or not. They have a pattern of spots and, in this case, a head profile that varies from animal to animal. When we came to do the monitoring, we took pictures and compared them, using specific software», explains Jorge Palma.
The SeagHorse project is also focused on restoring the seagrass meadows, and in 2020 an environmental requalification was carried out, during which new structures were placed for the seahorses to cling to.
According to Rui Santos, at the moment, the seagrass meadows are being threatened by the proliferation of seaweed Caulerpa, an invasive species that, with the increase in average water temperatures on the Algarve coast, has been migrating naturally from the Mediterranean to the Ria Formosa.
“One thing we already know is that the diversity of food, from different organisms, is greater in seagrass than in Caulerpa, but we still have a lot to [analyze] to understand» the effects of the invasive algae in the diet of seahorses in the Ria Formosa.
The “Seaghorse” project, developed by CCMAR with funding from the Belmiro de Azevedo Foundation, has the collaboration of the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF) and the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA)/ARH do Algarve.
The release into the wild that took place on Thursday was supported by the company iSea Yachting, which contributed one of its vessels to this action.
Comments