River pipefish
The estuarine pipefish or river pipefish is a species of fish in the family Syngnathidae. It is endemic to South Africa and has been sporadically recorded in the estuarine portions of the Kariega, Kasouga, Bushmans, East Kleinemonde and West Kleinemonde Rivers. It can be readily distinguished from another southern African pipefish with which it shares its habitat, S. temminckii, by its much shorter snout. The estuarine pipefish is most commonly found in beds of the eelgrass Zostera capensis. Although twice thought to be extinct, recent surveys have found juvenile Estuarine Pipefish in areas where it had not been reported in over four decades.
This species of pipefish is Critically Endangered due to both natural and human threats to the brackish estuaries and local eelgrass beds in which they live.
The type was a female of collected in the Bushmans River and sent to J.L.B. Smith by F.L.E. Watermeyer, whom Smith honoured in the newly described species' specific name.
