seadragons

Snorkeling or scuba diving on Australia's Southern Shores is one of life's true pleasures. Although many people would associate the words 'Australia' and 'diving' with the warmer waters of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia's temperate southern waters offer some wonderful diving.

This is because southern Australian waters are home to an incredible range of unique marine plants and animals. We call this biodiversity.

Seahorses, seadragons, pipehorses and pipefishes provide just one example of southern Australia's spectacular marine biodiversity.

These fish all belong to the family Syngnathidae and are commonly known as syngnathids. Around 30 of the World's 200 species of syngnathids are found in temperate Australian waters.

a Weedy Seadragon
Phyllopteryx taeniolatus
against a background of seagrass
(click thumbnail for full image)

Weedy Seadragon
a close up of the eggs
carried by a male
Weedy Seadragon
(click thumbnail for full image)

In my little corner of southern Australia one spectacular syngnathid is the Weedy Seadragon Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. This colourful fish is still relatively common, especially around reefs and in shallow bays and other sheltered areas where seagrasses grow. Being slow-swimming and active during the day it is easy to observe.

On a recent scuba dive some friends were able to observe one of the really fascinating elements of syngnathid biology - the males get pregnant. With seadragons the female lays her eggs onto the male's tail. The male fertilizes the eggs and nourishes the developing embryos until they hatch as fully developed baby seadragons.

Male seahorses take this process one step further. They have a pouch into which the female seahorse lays her eggs.