This month's article series will discuss, the Greek Island of Santorini!
Santorini is an island off the coast of Greece, located in the Aegean Sea. Santorini is approximately 104.57 nautical miles (120.337007 miles or 193.66364 kilometers from the nearest mainland area, which is Greece. It is a part of the Cyclades Islands, which is an archipelago located between Attica & Crete. There are approximately 220 islands classified within this archipelago. It is extremely popular for its beautiful white houses, with blue roofs. It is also popular for its boating tours of rocky coves & inlets. Santorini has 2 main cities, those cities being Fira, & Oia.
The beautiful rugged cliffs attract many eco-tourists as well, seeking the beauty of the island. Many tourists from around the Mediterranean also enjoy Santorini for its unique seafood, as their cuisine is considered to be very high-class.
Their beautiful dark sand beaches are also regarded extremely highly. Santorini is very biodiverse, & has beautiful underwater ecosystems housing thousands of animals. For this reason, scuba diving is also extremely popular as it gives people the opportunity to see the beauty of it. From sea hares to sea squirts, Santorini is filled with beautiful marine animals. One of the most wonderful of these animals is the Short-Snouted Seahorse.
The Short Snouted Seahorse is a species of Seahorse that is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, apart from a few colonies in the River Thames. They can often be found in coastal areas, such as estuaries, or seagrass meadows. The adults can often be seen with their spouses, as seahorses are monogamous. They are currently the only species of seahorse found around Santorini. In this article, we will discuss the Discovery & Life of the Short-Snouted Seahorse, the Mating Procedures, Practices, Cycles, Tactics, & Strategies of the Short-Snouted Seahorse, the Distribution of the Short-Snouted Seahorse, & the Scientific Detailings of the Short-Snouted Seahorse. With that being said, let us delve into this eccentric creature.
The Life & Discovery Of The Short-Snouted Seahorse
The Short Snouted Seahorse was first described by Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish Botanist, Naturalist, Zoologist, & Taxonomist. It was first described in the year 1758.
This species grows up to 15 centimeters long (5.90551), which makes them remarkably small for a seahorse. On average, they are 1.88 grams (0.06631505 ounces). Unfortunately, no one knows the exact lifespan of this species, but it has been estimated at 1 year. This species of seahorse, in particular, is incredibly intelligent, & is known for its remarkable memory. This seahorse species has been known to use memories to make decisions and be able to identify individuals. This does mean that theoretically if someone were to wrong a seahorse, it would remember & dislike that person. For this reason, people should avoid harassing seahorses.
Sea horses are incredibly socially smart & do often form emotional bonds & communicate with each other. They are incredibly social & often live in herds when captured, however, they often do live in solitude in the wild. It is unknown how long this species has existed, but Seahorses themselves have existed for approximately 13 million years, which gives us a fairly good timeframe to work with. In the wild, they usually don’t interact with humans, & are very timid creatures.
They are not violent or aggressive, & even if they were, they would be unable to do much harm due to their tiny size. Occasionally, they will be caught by humans for scientific purposes, or be caught on accident by being tangled in nets.
The diet for these animals consists of mainly shrimp. They are not cannibalistic in any form.
They are ambush predators, & hide in rocky reefs to strike with ease. They usually consume between 30-50 shrimps per day, to maintain their body weight. They locate food with their vision, & by feeling the water waves. Their metabolism is fairly fast, as they have to move quite a lot to get their food, & survive. They are diurnal hunters, meaning they strictly hunt during the day. Their main predators are rays, & larger fish.
They move by gently moving their dorsal fin to propel themselves forward. Because they swim upright, they are not very fast creatures or very agile ones. They are very poor swimmers, & do not often swim for any reason other than hunting or mating.
They are territorial & do stay confined to a certain area, but they won’t fight other seahorses for their territory. They sleep with their eyes open, & sleep by just resting part of their brain. While sleeping, they will cling onto seagrass or coral with their tails to avoid drifting.
As of 2025, they are not endangered, & have been listed as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List. Their short, upturned snouts make them very easily identifiable. They range from purple to yellow, to black They also lack a mane, meaning that their backs are bare.
The Mating Tactics, Strategies, Procedures, Cycles, & Practices Of The Short-Snouted Seahorse
The Short-Snouted Seahorse mates via sexual reproduction. This species has 2 distinct sexes, & is not hermaphroditic. Their mating system is monogamous, meaning that they find one partner & stay with that partner. Their mating season is summer, & they typically meet off the eastern coast of Turkey. It is unclear what age they sexually mature at, but going off other species of a similar size, it should be between 5-7 months. After they mature, the males will work to attract a female. After they have successfully attracted a female, they will engage in an incredibly intricate mating dance. After the ritual is completed, they will wrap their tails around each other & engage. The female will eject her eggs into his brood pouch, where he will fertilize them. Then, the male will carry the children until they have been fully gestated. After that, the male will contract his muscles, & shoot out 100 to 200 babies. These babies are 15 millimeters when born, & resemble their parents completely. The parents will not care for the children once they are born though, & the children will swim off to have lives of their own. The majority of these babies will never reach adulthood, as they are defenseless against larger predators. The parents will continue this cycle at least one more time before they pass away. Strangely enough, it seems that they get higher fertility as they age.
The Distribution Of The Short- Snouted Seahorse
The Short-Snouted Seahorse is Endemic to the Mediterranean, aside from a few small colonies in the River Thames, & a few near the Canary Islands. They tend to prefer waters with a higher salinity as well. Their preferred depth is about 77 meters (252.625 feet). They are often found in estuaries, rocky Reefs, & seagrass meadows. They are not migratory creatures, & usually stick to one area. This is why there may be certain localized behaviors that are only found within a certain region.
The Scientific Detailings Of Short-Snouted Seahorse
The Slender sSea Horse is incredibly interesting for many reasons but the most well-known of them all is that the male gets pregnant & gives birth instead of the female. This is a trait that is only found in sea horses, pipefish, and sea dragons. This is due to an interesting attribute, the male has a pouch that the female releases her eggs into. In turn, the male fertilizes the eggs & once he is ready, an opening in his abdomen appears & through muscle contractions, he pushes out the juveniles. This, however, is not the only specialized thing about them.
They have specialized structures within their skin cells that are called chromatophores. This allows them to change color to mimic their surroundings. They can do this seemingly at will. Octopi also have chromatophores. Sea horses lack teeth, instead having a long snout that they use to vacuum prey into their throats. This is why they can only consume very small amounts of food.
They also lack a stomach & have an incredible digestive tract unique to sea horses. The way that they digest is that their snout sucks the food in & it disintegrates as it goes through the snout. Due to this, they have to eat continuously to live or they will die of starvation. The anal fin of them is also on the front of the sea horse, it is near the torso of the sea horse. The male pouch so to speak, is just below the anal fin. The gills of the sea horse are located on the side of their head & are shaped like a circle. It is quite noticeable.
Their tail is square in bone structure. Their skeleton is a structure of interlocking bones. If you look at their entire body you will notice that all of it is built in a very similar way besides the skull.
Their phylum is Chordata, meaning that they developed these 5 characteristics all species under the phylum of Chordata develop 5 similar characteristics either In adulthood or as juveniles. The characteristics that they develop include, a notochord, dorsal hollow nerve cord, endostyle or thyroid, pharyngeal Slits, & a post-anal tail.
Their class is Actinopterygii, which means that they are ray-finned fish. This also means that their actinopterygian fin rays attach directly to the proximal or basal skeletal elements. Their order is Syngnathiformes. This is an order of ray-skinned fishes that includes trumpetfish & sea horses. A characteristic of being categorized under this order is that their bodies are narrow & surrounded by a series of bony rings. Another characteristic is their long tubular mouths.
Their family is Syngathidae. This is a family of sea horses & pipefish. A characteristic of them is their elongated snout. Another characteristic is that they have a lack of pelvic fins.
Their genus is Hippocampus. A feature that is found in all of them is their bone structure leaves them in an upright position.
Directories / Credits
Citation No. 1: “Short snouted seahorse (Hippocampus hippocampus)”, Written By Marisa Sabatini, Ruby Nash, & Susie Ballerstedt, & Published at an unknown date. Published by the Marine Life Information Network. Retrieval Date: September 18th, 2023.
Citation No. 2: “Short-Nosed Seahorse”, Written By Unknown & Published at an Unknown Date. Published by Aquarium La Rochelle. Retrieval Date: September 18th, 2023.
Citation No. 3: “Short-snouted Seahorse”, Written by Unknown & Published at an Unknown Date. Published By The Wild Life Trusts. Retrieval Date: September 18th, 2023.
Citation No. 4: “Reproductive biology of the Short-snouted Seahorse, Hippocampus Hippocampus (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Eastern Black Sea of Turkey (Osteichthyes: Syngnathidae)”, Written By Burcu Taylan, Sule Gürken, & Ertan Taskavak, & Published on the 20th of May, 2020. Published By the Taylor & Francis Group. Retrieval Date: September 18th 2023.
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