The humble seahorse might look like a creature from a Disney cartoon, but certain varieties are increasingly endangered, and they have long belied attempts at controlled breeding. A determined Irish marine biologist called Kealan Doyle, however, has spent the past decade creating a viable seahorse farm by perfecting a pioneering technique for seahorse breeding.
Doyle is the subject of a week-long documentary series, Seahorseman, which follows the trials and tribulations Doyle endured as he struggled to overcome technical disasters and mounting debt in pursuit of his goal. Airing over four nights on RTÉ1 from Monday, July 12th, the series spans a decade of Doyle’s work, and follows him from the founding of his company, Seahorse Ireland, in Connemara in 2001, to the subsequent collapse of his business and eventual resurgence, taking in fact-finding trips to China and Indonesia. An unlikely blend of nature programme and business profile, Seahorseman tells the tale of a unique Irish success story.
