I'm excited to have the cover image and a feature article in the spring issue of Marine Conservation Society's magazine.  MCS is a UK based charity that does great work throughout the British Isles, protecting our amazing marine life. 

I am pleased to announce that this issue (Volume 2: Issue 1) I have the cover image and a feature article 'The Sex Life of Seahorses' in 72 & Rising Magazine, which is a magazine focusing on marine and freshwater environments and their conservation. 

Check out the article here:

The Sex Life of Seahorses by Richard Smith (© Richard Smith 2012)

I am extremely pleased to announce that my image of mating Denise’s pygmy seahorses (Hippocampus denise) taken at Wakatobi Dive Resort is the ‘Parting Shot’ in the new issue (Winter 2012) of Alert Diver magazine (see attachment below).

My scientific publication on the habitat specialisation and population structure of gorgonian-associated pygmy seahorses has just been published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series (Link to the MEPS page):

Smith RE, Grutter AS & Tibbetts IR (2012).  Extreme habitat specialisation and population structure of two gorgonian-associated pygmy seahorses.  Marine Ecology Progress Series 444: 195-206

With the help of a very kind Taiwanese gentleman, Paladin Liu, I am now pleased to offer a Chinese version of the Code of Conduct for diving with and photographing pygmy seahorses.

Paladin has been seeing pygmy seahorses on some of his dives in Taiwan and wished to help protect them by sharing the Code of Conduct with his dive buddies.  I'm really pleased for his input and helping for this information to reach such a wide audience.

I was awarded my PhD in April 2011 on the biology and conservation of gorgonian-associated pygmy seahorses.  I thought it was about time that I posted the abstract of my thesis for anyone who's interested to have a little taster of some of my findings.  The individual chapters comprising my thesis are in the process of being published in the scientific journals so there will be more information about each of these as they are released.

ABSTRACT:

The Oceania Dive Expo will be in Brisbane, Australia between Friday 7th and Sunday 9th October 2011 and I am booked to present!  My seminar, which is on Saturday 8th October between 4.10 and 4.40pm, is entitled 'The Private Life of Pygmy Seahorses'.  I'll be talking about my research on pygmy seahorses and some of the fascinating aspects of their biology that I discovered during my PhD.  Check out the website for more information at www.OceaniaDiveExpo.com

On the 1^st April 2011 my PhD was officially awarded.  I am the first person to have completed a PhD on the biology of pygmy seahorses and I'm excited to share some of my findings.  My thesis is entitled 'The Biology and Conservation of Gorgonian-Associated Pygmy Seahorses'.  I will be publishing the findings from my thesis in the scientific literature in the coming months so keep checking back or sign up to my blog updates for details.  Until then I wanted to share some information and facts about pygmy seahorses: