Seahorse in St. Lucia
male seahorse with eggs
When ever anyone has a creature bucket list, if not all, but most of the time, you would definitely find that a sea horse is on that list. In St. Lucia, and other Caribbean islands, you will not fall short on seeing these amazing creatures. With their elongated bone fused mouth and body covered in boney plates, and limited ability to move, these seahorses are able to change colour and adapt to their various environments, as camouflage is their only line of defence. From sea beds to coral reefs, you never know where you may encounter these amazing animals, as they are such masters of disguise that it would be hard to almost impossible to sometimes spot even after being shown where it is.
Seahorses have a diet of plankton and also have the vision good enough to see the individual plankton, compared to the bigger filter feeders. The long snout seahorse possess a strange way of their mating and reproduction. They are first, monogamous, meaning they reproduce with the same mate for a many mating seasons. The female transfers the eggs into a specialised pouch of the male to be fertilized. The male then carries the eggs and incubate them until they hatch in about three weeks. After hatching, the newly hatched seahorses develop in the pouch until they are able to swim on their own. The newly developed juveniles get released from the male pouch, and into the surrounding waters, where they will grow to their full size. Not much is known about these mystical creatures, however they are under threat of becoming endangered, to extinct. Some natural predators of the Seahorse are but not limited to Stingrays, skates, crabs, larger fish and also sharks.
Dangers such as the aquarium trade, also persons who source them to dry it up to sell to tourists and shipped are all a huge problem. Sea horses are also used in traditional medicine and more. The Long snout seahorse is found in St. Lucia and many other islands as well in that Caribbean chain.