Hippocampus Nalu is the name of the new species of pigmy seahorse discovered in Sodwana Bay,   making it the first pigmy seahorse found in South African waters of the Indian Ocean. 

Named after the local dive leader that first found and photographed them in 2017 Savannah Nalu Olivier.  The name Nalu means “here it is” in iSiXhosa and and iZulu language and “surging surf wave in Hawaiian which seems an apt description for this micro scopic sea creature.

The pygmy seahorse is at maximum length 2cm and these tiny creatures can be as small as a grain of sand.  These creatures are extremely camouflaged hiding amongst the algae at a depth of around 15 metres on one of Sodwana Bay’s two mile dive sites.  It seems that the currents and surge do not bother them at all.

After Savannah brought the seahorses to the attention of South African scientist Dr Louw Claassens who was diving in Sodwana looking for a pygmy pipehorse in2018.  Louw said that to find a pygmy seahorse by chance is similar to finding a kangaroo in Norway.

They have different taxonomy to larger seahorses and this discovery has shocked researchers “because all seven other species of pygmy seahorse except one in Japan, inhabit the Coral Triangle, a biodiverse region in the south western pacific”, according to National Geographic and this is some 8000 km away.