Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality [Roughcut]

Helen Scales Ph.D. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 27, 2009

A fascinating journey with the sea creature that has captured human imagination for thousands of years

Poseidon?s Steed trails the seahorse through secluded waters across the globe in a kaleidoscopic history that mirrors man?s centuries-old fascination with the animal, sweeping from the reefs of Indonesia, through the back streets of Hong Kong, and back in time to ancient Greece and Rome. Over time, seahorses have surfaced in some unlikely places. We see them immortalized in the decorative arts; in tribal folklore, literature, and ancient myth; and even on the pages of the earliest medical texts, prescribed to treat everything from skin complaints to baldness to flagging libido. Marine biologist Helen Scales eloquently shows that seahorses are indeed fish, though scientists have long puzzled over their exotic anatomy, and their very strange sex lives?male seahorses are the only males in the animal world that experience childbirth!

Our first seahorse imaginings appeared six thousand years ago on cave walls in Australia. The ancient Greeks called the seahorse hippocampus (half-horse, half-fish) and sent it galloping through the oceans of mythology, pulling the sea god Poseidon?s golden chariot. The seahorse has even been the center of a modern-day international art scandal: A two-thousand-year-old winged seahorse brooch was plundered by Turkish tomb raiders and sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

A book that is as charming as the seahorse itself, Poseidon?s Steed brings to life an aquatic treasure.

Seahorses lead quiet lives, tucked away out of sight on the seafloor. It is rare to catch a glimpse of a seahorse in its natural habitat. But even if few have seen one live, these exotic, seemingly prehistoric creatures exist quite vividly in our imaginations and they have mesmerized scientists, artists, and storytellers throughout time with their otherworldly rarity.

Poseidon?s Steed is a sweeping journey that takes us from the coral reefs and seagrass meadows of Indonesia where many seahorses makes their natural habitat to the back streets of Hong Kong where a thriving black market seahorse trade is concealed. Throughout history, seahorses have surfaced in some unexpected places and Scales also follows the seahorse back in time, from our most rudimentary seahorse imaginings six thousand years ago on cave walls in Australia, to the myths of ancient Greece.

Scientists have long puzzled over seahorses? unusual anatomy and their very strange sex lives. And male seahorses are the only males in the animal world that experience childbirth! Seahorses are not what scientists call a ?keystone? species. They rely on a healthy ocean to survive, but the marine ecosystem does not rely on them. But their delicate beauty reminds us that we rely on the seas not only to fill our dinner plates, but also to feed our imaginations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Effectively examines the seahorse''s chameleon qualities, as well as the phenomenon of males giving birth-the only such instance in the animal kingdom. The author is also adept at delineating the seahorse''s alleged healing powers, and she offers a fascinating study in the history of aquariums and the pursuit of ''queer fish'' [...] the author makes a solid case for a rare and wondrous creature." - Kirkus

"A true natural history book, covering all aspects of the seahorse''s involvement in the world [...] Scales is a marine biologist, and her fascination with the subject (she learned to scuba dive in order to observe this remarkable creature) shines through in her easy-to-read style and the way she uses the seahorse as a hook to discuss broader subjects [...] This is sure to appeal to both teens and readers interested in the natural world." -Library Journal

"This seems to be just about the perfect book: small, delicate, elegant, charming, unusual, fascinating and uniquely memorable, a classic of its kind. In fact, now I come to think of it, Poseidon''s Steed is itself a sort of seahorse of the book world." -Simon Winchester

"This gem of a book has all the charm, passion, and compassion that one could look for in a great, relaxing read. Helen Scales is such a delightful writer and traveling guide that you won¦t even realize how much you¦re learning. Open the cover, go for a ride, have fun with this book. It¦s perfect for the beach." --Carl Safina, author of Song for the Blue Ocean, Eye of the Albatross, and Voyage of the Turtle

"In this eye-opening book, Helen Scales reveals the heretofore well- kept secrets of what is probably the most fascinating and enigmatic of all the fish in the sea, the tiny, horse-headed, vertical swimming, tube-mouthed, prehensile-tailed, male brood-pouched Hippocampus; evolutionary mystery (how could such a creature evolve?), star of mythology, and now, poster-child for marine conservation." -Richard Ellis, author of Tuna: A Love Story

Review

"Effectively examines the seahorse's chameleon qualities, as well as the phenomenon of males giving birth-the only such instance in the animal kingdom. The author is also adept at delineating the seahorse's alleged healing powers, and she offers a fascinating study in the history of aquariums and the pursuit of 'queer fish' [...] the author makes a solid case for a rare and wondrous creature." - Kirkus

"A true natural history book, covering all aspects of the seahorse's involvement in the world [...] Scales is a marine biologist, and her fascination with the subject (she learned to scuba dive in order to observe this remarkable creature) shines through in her easy-to-read style and the way she uses the seahorse as a hook to discuss broader subjects [...] This is sure to appeal to both teens and readers interested in the natural world." -Library Journal

"This seems to be just about the perfect book: small, delicate, elegant, charming, unusual, fascinating and uniquely memorable, a classic of its kind. In fact, now I come to think of it, Poseidon's Steed is itself a sort of seahorse of the book world." -Simon Winchester

"This gem of a book has all the charm, passion, and compassion that one could look for in a great, relaxing read. Helen Scales is such a delightful writer and traveling guide that you won¹t even realize how much you¹re learning. Open the cover, go for a ride, have fun with this book. It¹s perfect for the beach." --Carl Safina, author of Song for the Blue Ocean, Eye of the Albatross, and Voyage of the Turtle

"In this eye-opening book, Helen Scales reveals the heretofore well- kept secrets of what is probably the most fascinating and enigmatic of all the fish in the sea, the tiny, horse-headed, vertical swimming, tube-mouthed, prehensile-tailed, male brood-pouched Hippocampus; evolutionary mystery (how could such a creature evolve?), star of mythology, and now, poster-child for marine conservation." -Richard Ellis, author of Tuna: A Love Story

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Roughcut: 272 pages
• Publisher: Gotham (August 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159240474X
• ISBN-13: 978-1592404742
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #754,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr Helen Scales is a marine biologist and scuba diver who received her PhD from the University of Cambridge. She is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and has lived in various countries, conducting research on rare coral reef fish and working for several conservation organizations. She is a presenter on BBC radio shows The Naked Scientists and Home Planet, writes regularly for the National Geographic website, and has published scientific studies on the trade in endangered wildlife. She currently resides in Cambridge, England.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to Believe It's Not a Myth, September 21, 2009

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality (Roughcut)

Probably you have never seen a seahorse in the wild. Even Dr. Helen Scales, who is a scuba diver and marine biologist, has only seen them a few times. The first one she saw, after many dives of looking, was "like glimpsing a unicorn trotting through my garden." But everyone knows what a seahorse looks like, a fantastic looking creature that sparks curiosity, and it is a hit at aquariums or in oceanic picture books. Scales has satisfied many facets of the curiosity about seahorses in her book _Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality_ (Gotham Books). The reason seahorses don't get seen very often (and part of the reason for their attractiveness) is that they are placid; they do not zip away from predators, but quietly anchor themselves to grass or coral. There are, sadly, only a few black and white pictures in Scales's book, but she includes vivid explanations about the biology and legends of these strange creatures, as well as a broader look at our use of ocean resources.

Seahorses were so puzzling that it took a while for them to be classified as fish. Even in the nineteenth century there was confusion and thoughts that they might be insects or shrimp. But like all fish, they have gills, and they have a swim bladder that controls their buoyancy. Seahorse males are the only male animals that get pregnant and go into labor. During courtship, the female extrudes a short tube that goes into the belly of her mate, and through it she shoots an egg-laden serum. It would make sense that the sperm of the male would be injected into the pouch holding the eggs, but evolution didn't make things so simple. The male still has sperm ejected into the water, as spawning fishes do, and the sperm have to be sucked into the embryo pouch. You are much more likely to see a seahorse in an aquarium than in the wild, and Scales gives a quick history of aquariums, which sprang up in the time of the Victorian enthusiasm for natural history. The world's first public aquarium opened in London in 1853 and was extremely popular. When four seahorses, brought from Portugal, were installed six years later, they were a sensation. Seahorses became popular sights in all the public aquariums in the world, and people clamored to have them in their own home aquariums until they realized how much work a marine aquarium is and the fad died down. These days, there are seahorse farms to breed seahorses for such home or civic aquariums. The farms were originally an idea to cash in on the seahorse trade, not for aquarium displays but for medicinal use. Traditional Chinese medicine uses powdered seahorse in panaceas for virility, ulcers, and who knows what else. Seahorses are often dredged up as byproducts of commercial trawling for shrimp, and 25 million of them a year go into pills. It proved impossible for seahorse farms to keep up with the trawlers, whose catch can turn into dried seahorses sold by the ton. Taking seahorses in this way isn't the main threat to them, but they are not flourishing these days, because of loss of ecosystems due to many different reasons.

Scales, however, tries to be optimistic about efforts at recovery, citing especially the marine park movement: "Over the past twenty or thirty years, there has been mounting recognition that the most effective, not to mention the simplest, way of healing the oceans is merely to leave parts of them alone." Seahorses, however, are not "keystone" species; if they were all to vanish, there are not dependent species that would vanish with them nor prey that would burgeon uncontrolled. Seahorses, though, are special, as Scales shows in her review of the legends and stories we have made up about them. They are, she says, "so strange and yet so perfectly pleasing at the same time," and we should take great satisfaction in "knowing that the unlikely seahorses are merely a result of the unseen forces of natural selection at work." Seahorses may not be an essential species, and may be hard to find, but she reminds us that "the world is absolutely a better place just knowing there are seahorses swimming through the oceans." Her delightful and informative book, full of enthusiasm for her subject, richly fosters our appreciation for a unique creature.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DO GIVE THIS ONE A READ! I promise you that you will not be sorry!, November 8, 2009

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality (Roughcut)

Every so often you are fortunate enough to stumble across a book, purely by accident that is an absolute delight; a pleasurable pause in your life from which simply makes living better. This is one of those works. To be honest, I have never given seahorses much thought. Yes, I have seen their little bodies washed up on beaches around the world, seen pictures, gazed in disgust upon their dried remains in various Asian markets and gross little souvenir stands near our own now polluted gulf ...but never actually gave them much thought one way or the other.

Now I love books on nature, travel, history, natural history, archeology, mythology and adventure. Hellen Scales offered each of these subjects up for my pleasure in this wonderful little book, Poseidon's Steed; The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality. Good natural history, or nature writers are getting more and more difficult to come by these days but I must say that I have to add Ms. Scales' name to my list of some of the greats; Teale, Peterson, Bailey, Muir, Dillard, Darwin, Leopold and so many others. I feel I am not exaggerating the point here folks...this lady is good!

In this work the author gives us a wonderful picture of the little, quiet and unobtrusive creature the seahorse. She begins with a very nicely done background sketch of the seahorse in art and literature and proceeds to point out its importance in various archeological discoveries, literally from around the world. This theme is woven into her work throughout the book. Of course she addresses the seahorses and their state in our present world; giving us fact after interesting fact (Did you know that he seahorse is the only known species on our plant where the male actually gives birth? Did you know they can change colors at will?), of the various seahorses found in virtually every ocean on our planet, with the exception of the arctic areas. She goes on to explain how these little creatures are used by millions (I might add, extremely delusional and ill informed millions) of individuals to cure a plethora of ailments, impotency seemingly being the primary problem it would seem.

Of course the author does a wonderful job of letting us know the plight of these creatures; how they are being legally and most importantly, illegally hunted and gathered from most of the waters reachable my man. Many subspecies are now on the endangered list and some, if not already, are on the verge of extinction. There seem to be big money in dead seahorses and between greedy hunters, environmentally damaging trawlers and pollution, the outlook is rather grim. The author does give us a bit of hope here and there as she explains some of the many programs not functioning to try to save these little harmless critters that have been so important symbolically in our culture.

Please do not get the impression that this book is a mere study of the taxonomy. No, no, no...far from it; the book actually reads like something between a travel book and a well written novel. It always rather amazes me when I run across a member of academia (Ms.Scales received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and has been deeply involved in research) that can actually write for we, the general unwashed masses...how refreshing this is! No pretense here; this young lady can write and write well... make no mistake!

If you enjoy natural history writing; nature writing, at its best, then this is certainly a book you will want to add to your reading list. I know I will be giving it many more reads in the future for the sheer joy of reading a goodly done piece of work.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Look into the Precarious World of the Seahorse, September 1, 2010

By 

N. Fedrizzi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality (Hardcover)

Poseidon's Steed is a fascinating introduction into the world of the seahorse, explaining the historical significance of these iconic creatures, and accurately depicting their uncertain future as a result of human consumption for the traditional medicine trade. Dr. Helen Scales spans the globe, collecting myths and legends of the seahorse from many different cultures and time periods, to explain how these relatively unassuming creatures have remained so culturally and spiritually important to the modern world. An importance which, ironically, threatens the seahorse's very existence. Much of information regarding the seahorse trade found in Poseidon's Steed comes from primary sources, that Scales either collected from experts in the field, or witnessed first-hand during her extensive travels. In addition to accurately describing the plight of the seahorse, Scales optimistically offers suggestions and encouragement for the possible methods of preservation of these emblems of the sea. One of the best things about this book is that it's accessible, a rare trait in scientific writing. Scales' personal enthusiasm for not only seahorses, but the entire marine environment, makes a book packed with scientific information, feel as another reviewer put it, "like a beach read". I would argue, however, that this work should be taken more seriously than that, as it gives a voice to a genus of creatures in real and persistent trouble brought by human hands. In addition to providing a valuable environmental message, Scales pragmatically tackles the larger question of "why seahorses matter" to the global community in the first place. The existence of seahorses "almost certainly doesn't matter for the ecology of the oceans" explains Scales, but ultimately "they matter because they inspire us to care about the natural world". This too, is the message of this excellent book, which is well worth a read.