The endangered White’s seahorse Hippocampus whitei chooses artificial over natural habitats

Michael Simpson1 | Rebecca L. Morris2 | David Harasti3 | Ross A. Coleman1

1Coastal and Marine Ecosystems, School of

Life and Environmental Sciences, University of

Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

2National Centre for Coasts and Climate,

School of Biosciences, The University of

Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

3Fisheries Research, NSW Department of

Primary Industries, Taylors Beach, New South

Wales, Australia

Correspondence

Michael Simpson, Marine Ecology Laboratories

(A11), The University of Sydney, NSW 2006,

Australia.

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

To explore whether the endangered White’s seahorse Hippocampus whitei would

choose to inhabit artificial over natural habitats, 10 adult H. whitei individuals were

put through a series of binary choice trials in aquaria, during which they were offered

different paired combinations of natural (different types of macroalga and seagrass)

and artificial habitat (panels of swimming-net material). It was found that H. whitei

displayed a significant choice for swimming-net material over all other available natu-

ral habitats and chose habitats according to the following rankings: (a) Net;

(b) Sargassum sp.; (c) Posidonia australis; (d) Zostera muelleri. Hippocampus whitei’s

choice of swimming net material over natural habitat suggests that these artificial

structures could be a useful conservation measure for seahorses in areas where natu-

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