DIVE HAPPY

Indonesia's Lembeh Strait is famous for its high critter count - and it appears a new species of Pgymy Seahorse might have been discovered there

Muhani Pygmy Seahorse 3

Muhani Pygmy Seahorse 3

Muhani Pygmy Seahorse 2

Muhani Pygmy Seahorse 2

Muhani Pygmy Seahorse 1

Muhani Pygmy Seahorse 1

Muhani Pygmy Seahorse 4

Muhani Pygmy Seahorse 4

These fantastic pictures of the Muhani Pgymy Seahorse were supplied by David and Debi Henshaw of DigitalDiving.co.uk - you can read the full story of how they came to encounter this tiny new wonder on their own site. The hunt is now on to verify that this is indeed a previously undiscovered species (which is quite difficult because 2 specimens of the species are required, which would mean removing the only two known specimens from the ocean...).

The Seahorse was discovered by Iwan Muhani, Kungkungan Bay Resort's Dive Team Supervisor. Hopefully, if the species does prove to be formally identified as brand new, it will be named after Iwan in his honour. I'm not sure how long this process might take, but if I hear of any updates I'll add to this story.

Thanks again to Debi and David for sharing this story - all pictures are their copyright.