[vc_row bg_style=”stretch” css=”.vc_custom_1510893228910{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1510908424132{margin-bottom: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-right: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;border-radius: 5px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1585931079941{padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”]Some diver chase mantas, some chase whales. But all will agree that a once in a lifetime experience is seeing a male Seahorse (Hippocampus) give birth.
A true feminist, in mating, pregnancy and birth, it is the male who carries most of the burden. Seahorse mating dance begins with the male opening and closing his pouch to show off its emptiness to the female, signaling to her he is ‘free’ for breeding action. This action also inserts salt water into his pouch, which in turn activates his sperm to be able to fertilize the female’s eggs. They then place their pouches against each other and the female inserts her eggs to the male’s pouch (how romantic). Pregnancy lasts between 9-40 days, depending on the specie, with as many as 2000 offsprings!
Giving birth, male seahorse go through muscular contraction to push the babies out, folding forward, with their cute snout looking like he is concentrating on the action, he releases several baby seahorses with every contraction. At Atlantis Resorts Dumaguete, we often see seahorses on the house reef, even in pairs, but we have yet to see a birth. On the bucket list !
Atlantis Resort in Dauin is a beachfront dive resort, situated in a lush tropical garden with rich fauna and flora; specializing in an all inclusive dive vacation, with excellent meals at Toko’s restaurant, Atlantis offers up to 5 boat dives a day. Small dive groups, climate controlled camera room, and new boats.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”9619″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_rounded” onclick=”link_image”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
