Seahorse Farm in Kona Lets Visitors Hold a Seahorse

Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm in Kona visitor entrance to gift shop.

Even while the temperatures dip below freezing in Sacramento, a bright thought those shivering can hold on to is what purports to be the largest privately owned seahorse farm in the world is located in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Near the Kona airport, down the road with the sign for Natural Energy, you come upon a farm on the edge of the Pacific waters. There you can buy tickets for $40 a pop, wash your hands and arms up to your elbows to avoid contamination.

I wanted to buy one of the 6-foot tall carved wood seahorses, but they were not for sale. Decoration only. When I first read about the seahorse farm, I was a bit skeptical. It’s a profit center with a non-profit arm. The seahorse farm sells “hand-raised seahorses” all over the world for about $100 each. It charges $40 to show you its operation. And, if you pay them a little more, they will also release a captive seahorse for you into the wild.

Enhanced natural landscaping at Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm in Kona

Many of the keikis in attendance were begging their parents for seahorses. So this place also has created a desire to purchase its merchandise where no such desire most likely previously existed. Then I wondered why I don’t own a seahorse farm. Sounds like a perfect operation. One can claim protection of an endangered species by raising fish through local farming efforts and create a non-profit to boot. Where can I buy stock?

However, there is some truth in the message and marketing. Of course, now I also want to establish another aquarium and fill it with mating seahorses myself. Cannot deny there is a certain lure to these creatures. They can live to be 20 years or so. The males get pregnant, not the females. The female just deposit her eggs into the male pouch and the male fertilizes, carries and give birth. What’s not to like?

Red volcanic shrimp at Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm is food for baby seahorses.

This seahorse farm tour begins by a visit to the red volcanic shrimp pond. These tiny shrimp are raised as food for the baby seahorses. Just across the way is a building where they do not allow photos. After stepping in a solution to cleanse our shoes, we walked to large blue circular tubs filled with baby seahorses and fed them cups of shrimp collected from the pond.

Ocean Rider Kona Seahorse Farm raises 25 varieties of seahorses, including these yellow guys.

Seahorses come in many different colors. While mating, the brown seahorses can turn silver. We witnessed a little action in the seahorse tank after feeding them. And the way they curl their tails around each other and coral is super cool and cute. It is easy to anthromorphize.

While only about 1% of the seahorses in the wild survive, which are terrible odds, don’t you think, the odds of survival to adulthood at the seahorse farm are about 50%. That appears to be an impressive survival rate. The reason the seahorse is endangered is because they are overfished for “seahorse medicinal” purposes in Chinese medicine. One more thing to blame on the country of China.

Sea dragons are raised alongside seahorses at the Ocean Rider seahorse farm.

I wish I could tell you what kind of fish is pictured here, above the yellow seahorse head, but I cannot. It was unusual, so I shot a photo of it in the tank. This was after sampling seaweed. Some of the reviews I read mentioned not eating the seaweed, but I like seaweed in sushi, so I tried it. It’s not green and slimy. This farm-raised seaweed is crunchy, brown, almost like french fries, but much thinner and extremely salty.

Upside down brown seahorse against orange coral at Ocean Rider Kona Seahorse Farm.

The entire tour lasted about 90 minutes. We were entertained and led by Ashley, a marine biologist from the seahorse farm. She was especially kind to the children who disobeyed the rules and tried to stick their little hands into the tubs of seahorses, and pounded on the glass of the fish tanks. As a parent, one is expected to be vigilant at all times concerning your little monsters, which is why we don’t have children.

Sacramento Realtor Elizabeth Weintraub holds a seahorse at the seahorse farm.

Saved the best part for last. Ashley asked us to form a human reef with our fingers touching each other and dip our arms into the water tank up to our elbows. Then she carefully unwrapped a seahorse from a piece of coral and moved the fish toward my finger. Voila! The seahorse wrapped its tail around my finger and sat there for the longest time. This beats riding a camel.

Plus, I have to say, it’s a great marketing strategy, to bond visitors to the seahorses. They ship the seahorses in bags of water inside a padded FedX box. Ashley says the seahorses arrive on your doorstep in 24 to 48 hours. I’m guessing the 24 hours is to another Hawaiian island and it might take 2 days to reach the states, but I did not ask about shipping to Sacramento.

When the seahorses arrive at your home, and they suggest you buy two to mate and which will bond during shipping, the seahorses will thrive on a diet of frozen shrimp. See, don’t you want to raise a couple of your own seahorses now?