Dragon Search SA analysed 1,540 citizen science reports.
Nearly 1,700 sea dragons are documented to have died during South Australia's harmful algal bloom, a new report has found, amid hopes of a strong breeding season next month.
Encounter Bay, St Vincent and Spencer gulfs, Investigator Strait and waters off Kangaroo Island were affected by an extended outbreak that killed marine animals and affected human health.
At least 787 seagrass-home brushtail pipefish mortalities were recorded, along with 574 spotted pipefish and 42 long-snout pipefish, while thousands more dead pipefish were observed in metropolitan seagrass wash-ups but not counted.
Professor Booth said there had been reports of sea dragons in Second Valley but at Rapid Bay, one of the state's renowned dive sites, the ongoing closure of the old jetty and its 20-metre exclusion zone for diving was hindering any surveying of the species.
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About 1,524 weedy sea dragons were recorded dead in South Australia. The report found pipefish and seahorses mainly washed up over winter and spring in 2025, but dead sea dragons continued to be observed from summer 2025 to autumn 2026.
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The article, shortened and in plain language
Dragon Search SA analysed 1,540 citizen science reports.
Researchers are looking into ways to boost the species' breeding rate.
Nearly 1,700 sea dragons are documented to have died during South Australia's harmful algal bloom, a new report has found, amid hopes of a strong breeding season next month.
About 1,524 weedy sea dragons were recorded dead in South Australia, while 159 leafy sea dragons were also reported dead.
"The weedy and the leafy in particular occur in South Australia as a world hotspot," said Dragon Search SA member Professor David Booth from the University of Technology Sydney.
The HAB first emerged in South Australian waters in early 2025.
Encounter Bay, St Vincent and Spencer gulfs, Investigator Strait and waters off Kangaroo Island were affected by an extended outbreak that killed marine animals and affected human health.
Sea dragons are a part of the Syngnathidae family and cannot swim away rapidly from patches of water where the bloom is dense.
At least 787 seagrass-home brushtail pipefish mortalities were recorded, along with 574 spotted pipefish and 42 long-snout pipefish, while thousands more dead pipefish were observed in metropolitan seagrass wash-ups but not counted.
Professor Booth told 891 ABC Adelaide that sea dragons were entering their October breeding season in SA.
Professor Booth said there had been reports of sea dragons in Second Valley but at Rapid Bay, one of the state's renowned dive sites, the ongoing closure of the old jetty and its 20-metre exclusion zone for diving was hindering any surveying of the species.
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