Schmidt Ocean's video: Seamounts Canyons Reefs of the Coral Sea - A Beautiful Little Vision - FK200802

On one of the ROV dives, the team found this tiny (~ 1cm!) pygmy seahorse in the zone (114m deep) in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. ROV SuBastian is about the size of a subcompact car (think MINI Cooper, Honda Fit, or Chevrolet Sonic) - can you imagine driving down the road and being able to spot something the length of a thumb-tack? The pilots' and researchers' eagle-eyes are aided by SuBastian's outstanding lighting and camera systems. (More about them on our website: https://schmidtocean.org/technology/robotic-platforms/4500-m-remotely-operated-vehicle-rov/ ) As for the seahorse, it is a Hippocampus bargibanti, also known as Bargibant's seahorse or the pygmy seahorse. It is tiny, usually less than 2 centimetres (0.79 in) in size and lives exclusively on fan corals. The pygmy seahorse was not discovered until 1969 due to its impressive camouflage (and minuscule size). Bargibanti pygmy seahorses are extreme habitat specialists, spending their entire adult life on a single gorgonian coral. Bargibanti’s are one of the smallest seahorse species in the world and only grow to around ¾ of an inch. They are able to change their coloration to blend almost entirely with their host fan. They also adopt “tubercles” - the warty like nodules on their bodies closely resembling the buds seen on the coral. By wrapping its prehensile tail around one of the branches, the seahorse anchors and attaches itself to the fan. They are too small to handle currents and are not strong swimmers. So, they live in close proximity to one another, with small colonies of up to 20 adults existing on a single fan. See Less