Seahorses In The Surf

James Swatski was surf fishing over the weekend and landed a sea horse.  No, not a traditional landing like a fish, the sea horse was wrapped around his line.  Right now you are imagining someone wrangling a horse with a surf rod, not the case but some interesting imagery.  James was checking a hit on his rod, there was crab on the hook, and the seahorse wrapped up in his line.  They will use their tail to grasp your line in the surf to rest and stop to catch food as it passes by.  They feed on small plankton and small crustaceans, or copepods.  They have a voracious appetite.   Seahorses do not swim very well and can get jammed up in storm waters and heavy currents.  That is when we usually find many of them in the high tide line washed up on the beach, dried up.  They use a small fin on their back that flutters up to thirty-five times per second to propel them through the water.  Much smaller pectoral fins near the back of the head are used for steering.  They will use their prehensile tail to hold onto sea grasses and corals, and in this case your fishing line.  If you happen upon a live sea horse, please return them to the sea.  You can always do some beach combing to locate some dried ones in the high tide line.  Just look in the clumps of reeds and grass on the beach.  Other interesting facts about seahorses … they mate for life and the male cares for the eggs and carries the young in a pouch on its abdomen.

Fish On!!

Rich King