Our featured iSeahorse observation for March comes to us from West Palm Beach, Florida. This interesting picture was captured by iSeahorse user katieg628. It shows the lined seahorse, Hippocampus erectus, giving birth to many juvenile seahorses. Seahorses and their relatives are among the only fish species to give live birth, as can be seen here in the photo.

Males brood the eggs in their brood pouch and then give birth to live young, which travel into the water column and float with currents for dispersal.

In addition to being lucky enough to catch a live seahorse birth, Katie also unknowingly caught a glimpse of a manatee (Trichechus manatus)! The manatee shares habitat with seahorses in the western Atlantic. Both the lined seahorse and the manatee are considered Vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN Red List . Seahorses share their ocean homes with many other important marine species, which is a big part of why Project Seahorse operates under the mantra "Saving seahorses means saving our seas" — protecting habitat that seahorses depend on also helps protect the homes of countless other species, contributing greatly to the overall health of our oceans and planet.

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This month's iSeahorse featured observation is from Negros in the Philippines. Nudisusie managed to capture this excellent shot of a very pregnant thorny seahorse, Hippocampus histrix . It looks as though he’s just about to give birth to a whole bunch of tiny seahorses.

Seahorses are well-known for male pregnancy. But among fishes they are also quite unique in that they are ovoviviparous, meaning that they give birth to live young. Most other fishes undergo ‘broadcast spawning’, where both males and females release gametes into the water column with the hopes they’ll meet in the currents. Many other species lay eggs and guard them, but seahorses are among the only fish that see the pregnancy through full term. This unique trait makes seahorses especially interesting to biologists studying reproductive biology. Recent research has even shown that the seahorse brood pouch works very similarly to the mammalian (and human) placenta.

Like many seahorse species, the thorny seahorse is listed on the IUCN Red List as Vulnerable as a result of being caught as bycatch and habitat loss. Gaining insight into our own reproductive biology is just one of the many reasons to conserve seahorses. Thanks again to nudisusie for posting!

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