You could call them horsey hotels, or perhaps marine motels – but human-built habitats for White’s seahorses, an endangered species, are popping up locally.
The seahorse care team at Birch Aquarium built a “hotel” in the White’s seahorse habitat, which can be found in the Seadragons and Seahorses exhibit.
The seahorse care team at Birch, part of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, was inspired by Australia’s ongoing habitat restoration projects. In September, hundreds of White’s seahorses were released into the wild after a stay in multiple “Seahorse Hotels,” artificial habitats built as school projects.
Seahorses have lost much of their fragile habitats to human activity, such as boat installations that drag anchors and cause sand movement to bury their living areas. They also lost a large amount of habitat to climate change, such as major flooding in Australia in 2021 and 2022.
White’s seahorses are listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
“We hope our seahorse hotel not only educates guests about an inspiring and successful conservation effort but also highlights the vital role public aquariums … play in protecting our ocean and the species that call it home,” said Mark Yun, seahorse care and conservation aquarist at Birch, in a Scripps release.
White’s seahorses prefer shallow estuarine habitats, which filter pollutants. The species is typically found in seagrass beds, mangrove roots and coral reefs.
The artificial habitats offer a new type of sanctuary for seahorses, and the care team hopes it spreads the message of their conservation efforts.
Since 2019, more than 200 hotels have been placed in lost habitat areas, and hundreds of seahorses have been released into the hotels to restore the populations.
“Our White’s seahorse breeding program at Fisheries Research … is exceeding all expectations,” said David Harasti, principal marine specialist of threatened species and habitats in New South Wales, a state in Australia.
According to Harasti, 1,500 captive-born seahorses have been released into the hotels this year. The goal is to release 3,000 by June 2025.
The effort in Australia is supported by the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries Fisheries, Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, the NSW Estuary Asset Protection program and the Commonwealth Saving Native Species program.
