The recent storms affected thousands of seahorses in Plettenberg Bay; CapeNature rallied the community to rescue the seahorses which were washing up on Lookout Beach.
Plettenberg Bay, South Africa (29 September 2023) – CapeNature rallied the Plett community to bring buckets down to Lookout Beach where thousands of seahorses had been washed up. The community collected as many as they could save and they were relocated to a safe location.
Speaking to the team at CapeNature, they shared why this rescue effort was necessary.
“Due to heavy rains, a flood occurred on Tuesday, 26 September 2023 in the Keurboomsriver and the Bitou river persisting for some time with high water flow. It flushed a significant number of seahorses out of the mouth of the river at low tide. This caused the seahorses to be deposited on the Lookout beach at Plettenberg Bay.
CapeNature’s marine rangers led a herculean effort with the support of the community and up to now more than a thousand seahorses were rescued and 720 have been returned to their natural habitat. They are being put back into the estuaries where they usually occur and where there is a huge eelgrass bed where they seek refuge and shelter and where they find their food.”
This rescue would not have been possible without the community. CapeNature shared its gratitude for every person and child who arrived to help. According to them, over 100 volunteers showed up and they were able to save over 1000 surviving seahorses.
“CapeNature has immense gratitude for the community of Plettenberg Bay and how they came together to help collect stranded seahorses. The news of the stranded seahorses spread like wildfire on social media and local people, who have a special concern for this precious species, turned up in droves.
The combination of many people showing up and many people showing up at the right time made all the difference. With this interaction, we could find so many more seahorses. We absolutely commend the public and their actions. It was a huge community effort.”
“The Knysna seahorse is truly a national treasure. It is South Africa’s only endemic seahorse and is one of only two Endangered seahorse species in the world. Found in only three Southern Cape Estuaries (the Knysna, Swartvlei and Keurbooms Estuaries) the Knysna Seahorse is an iconic species for Knysna.”
This unity of community will mean an already endangered species has a fighting chance to reestablish itself after the storm.
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