Mr Garrick-Maidment described the fish as “an amazing storyteller of what’s going on in the world” and urged people to view seahorses as an indicator of the issues humans pose to nature.
“Everything that happens to seahorses happens to almost every bit of nature that we’ve got,” he explained.
“The challenges to seahorses are endless, to be honest. If it’s not man-made problems, such as habitat loss through anchors, dredging, pollution, people building on the foreshore, it’s natural problems like flash flooding.”
Predators of seahorses include other fish, such as bream and pollock, and seagulls have been know to drop them from height to crack them open.
“The biggest predator of all, as usual, is humans,” Mr Garrick-Maidment said.