"Male, single, fun-loving, good with children, seeks female companion with keen interest in marine environment."
Ever since "Brian", a short-snouted seahorse, was discovered earlier this year by a fisherman in the Thames estuary in Britain, there has been an international search to find him a suitable mate. Now the Connemara hatchery which breeds and rears the species has come up with a suitable partner.
"Róisín", as the eight-month-old Hippocampus hippocampus is called, is due to be flown in style this week to the Southend-on-Sea aquarium where Brian is resident. Mr Kealan Doyle, founder and owner of Seahorse Ireland in Carna, Co Galway, says there is every likelihood the pair will mate as part of a captive breeding and restocking initiative.
The search for Brian's partner captured the public imagination in Britain after the male was profiled on Channel 4's Richard and Judy Show. Mr Doyle's award-winning hatchery responded, and FedEx, the international courier company, agreed to provide transportation.
"Brian belongs to one of two species of seahorse found in the wild off Britain and Ireland, but discovery of a Hippocampus hippocampus is quite rare - and particularly in the less than pristine environment of the Thames estuary," Mr Doyle said yesterday.
Named after the fisherman who captured him, the seahorse has been accommodated at Sea Life Adventure in Southend-on-Sea.
Tomorrow Róisín will be transferred from her tank into a salt-water heavy-duty plastic bag, and she will be driven in a reinforced polystyrene box to Shannon. She will be flown in a FedEx plane to Stansted and should be in her new temporary home by Wednesday evening.
Róisín will have a pre-nuptial quarantine period before being placed in Brian's tank. If and when they do get it together, she won't have to endure backpains or stomach upsets or any other symptoms of pregnancy, as the male seahorse is the one left holding the babies - literally. The female lays eggs in the male pouch, and the eggs then hatch.
Seahorse Ireland employs six people in Carna, and recently won a conservation award from the International Seahorse Trust. Seahorses are regarded as an endangered species due to their commercial harvesting for souvenirs and medicines.
