River Thames boasts the seahorse

This week it was discovered that a colony of short-snouted seahorses has made the River Thames its home.

This is a positive and unexpected outcome after the 1950s had seen the Thames become merely known as a biologically inactive expanse of water.

The colony of seahorses joins over 100 different species of fish, seals, porpoises and fish to have been sighted in the London River since the millennium.

The presence of the seahorses in the Thames was initially confirmed 18 months prior to this announcement; the announcement was delayed until new laws were introduced that would protect them from collectors.

The discovery has provoked much excitement amongst animal lovers.

Alison Shaw of the Zoological Society of London spoke of the discovery as if it were as significant as finding immense riches.

The presence of the seahorses is also evidence of the improved water condition of the Thames, as a waterway home to a variety of wildlife.

Yet Neil Dunlop of the Environment Agency has stated that as the water condition has been improved for a good while there must be other reasons, such as improved monitoring, that explain the seahorse influx.

It has taken much work to improve the condition of the River Thames, with combat against the River’s stench begun in earnest in the 1960s.

New sewage works were introduced to stop raw effluent being pumped into the river.

This ended a process that had resulted in bacteria eating up the majority of the water’s necessary dissolved oxygen.

In addition to this stricter legislation on riverside industry aided the river’s condition- by 1974 salmon were sighted in the river, a sight which had not occurred in over 150 years.

Other species of fish were soon discovered, later followed by sightings of dolphin, porpoises and even the odd whale.