Visitors often express their surprise when they get up close to the two different herds of seahorses and realise they are real and not mythical sea creatures.

At Great Yarmouth Sea Life visitors can get up close to the Spiny Seahorse (Hippocampus guttulatus) and the Short-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus hippocampus).

This is just one of the many creatures that visitors to the Sea Life can see time and time again – thanks to the Sea Life Annual Pass.

Token 1 is available in this week’s Great Yarmouth Mercury, and Token 2 next week. Don’t muss this great annual offer!

In varying shades of striking colours the seahorses hail from cooler waters in the ocean and can grow up to 8-12 centimetres in length. Although these creatures are poor swimmers, they are able to hold on to grasses and weeds using their strong tails.

Seahorses are sensitive and are extremely vulnerable to pollution, changes in water quality, ocean storms, the loss of seaweed beds and are continually at risk of being over-fished for use in the alternative medicine trade and the souvenir trade, where dead seahorses are often dried and encased in resin for sale as knick-knacks like key-rings and magnets.

Sea Life want to encourage the public not to buy things like that while on holiday.