Seahorse
Hippocampus sp.
Where it was photographed: The Winter Anchorage area of Island Beach State Park (near the canoe and kayak ramp).
One of the more interesting and rare organisms that live in the marsh is the seahorse. The seahorse is a plankton-eater (part of the plankton food chain). The seahorse in this photo is about 6-inches long. The species of seahorse found in the Barnegat Bay estuary is very dependent on the eel grass beds (a type of submerged aquatic vegetation throughout the bay). The seahorse’s occasional presence in the estuary may be due to the changes in the stability of the health of eel grass beds.