Prony Bay Seahorse Meadows

Prony Bay at the southern tip of Grande Terre is a drowned river estuary sheltered from ocean swell, its shallow sandy and seagrass bottom one of New Caledonia's most reliable sites for New Caledonian seahorse encounters. The endemic Hippocampus jugumus was first formally described from specimens recorded in this bay, and resident populations of both this species and the tiger-tail seahorse anchor themselves to seagrass blades at depths of 3 to 12 metres. Ornate ghost pipefish accompany them seasonally while the bay's unusual chemistry — brackish inflows mixed with marine water — supports a distinct macrofauna including rare soft-sediment nudibranchs and sea spiders not commonly encountered elsewhere in the territory.