Perhaps the most curious group of fish are the seahorses and their relatives in the family Syngnathidae. Their appearance is very unfishlike, with their often erect or semi-erect posture, their horse-like heads, armoured bodies and the habit of many of them of clinging to marine growth by their tails. These little fish swim in a stately and elegant manner by vibrating their dorsal fins. Their long snout has a toothless mouth at the end and they feed by sucking in minute prey, much as we would suck on a straw.

Seahorses are well-camouflaged and so are not often sighted. But we sometimes strike it lucky and come across the big-bellied seahorse Hippocampus abdominalis, clinging to jetty pylons, weed or nets. Snorkelers used to be able to see them around the net at Bar Beach, Narooma, but since the net was renewed they haven't come back. Hopefully some will appear in the future.

We are also fortunate that in our waters we can find the largest member of the seahorse family, the weedy seadragon Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. This beautiful animal grows to around 50 cm, and is orange, red and yellow, with a complex pattern of stripes and dots. Its fins are modified into leaf-like appendages, which can make it even harder to spot in its weedy home.

There are also pipefishes, which look like a seahorse that has been laid flat and stretched out. These swim in a horizontal fashion, rather like eels.

In incubating and giving birth to their young, seahorses reverse the usual gender roles. The female lays her eggs in a pouch on the belly of the male and is then free of family responsibilities. The male incubates the young, which can number from 20 to 450, depending on the species. After developing in daddy's pouch for a couple of months, the baby seahorses pop out one by one and then have to fend for themselves.

Seadragons do not have pouches and instead males carry the eggs cemented to the inside of their tails.

Seahorses are very vulnerable to habitat disturbance. What is even more worrying is that in many parts of the world they are collected in huge numbers for use in Chinese medicine or as aquarium specimens. A staggering 20 million of these lovely little fish are killed each year around the world as a result. Happily, seahorses and all the other members of the Syngnathidae family are completely protected in New South Wales. The ban on trawling in the Batemans Marine Park helps protect their habitats too. Hopefully we will be able to continue to enjoy their company from time to time as we dive in our beautiful South Coast waters.