West African Seahorse

The West African seahorse (Hippocampus algiricus) is a species of fish in the family Syngnathidae (Seahorses and pipefish). It is found in the eastern central Atlantic Ocean off Angola, Benin, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, as well as the Canary Islands. Although there have been no records from Algeria since Guichenot said that the type was collected at Béjaïa in the 1850s, but the location given may be an error.

There is scarce information despite conservation efforts for this species. The first records of the West African seahorse at Gran Canaria Island, located in the north-east Atlantic Ocean, were confirmed by genetic and morphometric analysis. This sighting of the West African seahorse in the Canary Islands could be due to the Canary current, West African coastal upwelling, trade winds, anthropogenic origin related to sporadic ship water ballast transport, or the climatic warming in the canary region making it suitable for them to live in. In turn, this has caused a hybridization event between the West African Seahorse and the European short-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus hippocampus), who already resides there.