Just published! A photo of my work: Purplish Seahorse in volume 19 of USF’s lit mag!
This piece is layered glass, covered in resin.
(C) Kelly Jadon, 2025
The Greater Seahorses Are Here!
“How does a male seahorse give birth?”
“With a Sea-Section!”
Funny but half-true. Among this unique species, it is the male who gives birth. Tiny baby seahorses are ejected from the male’s abdomen into the coastal waters. The number ranges from dozens to thousands!
JBCC Breakfast, with Cindy Charette
In May, I was invited by Cindy Charette, owner of the Sand & Sea Boutique in Jensen Beach to introduce my seahorse art at the Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce breakfast.
Great Seahorse #1, Kelly Jadon, 2024, SOLD
I am currently working on a series of greater seahorses—larger pieces. Beginning with a recycled glass shelf, I drew an outline of what I wanted to create on a piece of paper. Placing the shelf on top, I began to move dark blue glass into the perimeter of the seahorse—a male—and later filled in layers of other stained glass.
Great Seahorse #2, Kelly Jadon, 2024—in the works
I have another shelf in the works! I located a really cool (is that word still acceptable?) blue-purplish dish that I utilized for the animal’s back dorsal fin. Other bits and segments are incorporated on the crown, head and along the back. Greater Seahorse #2 is soon to be finished and will be 12x21”. Currently, the clear area around the creature is being filled with a variety of glass motifs.
Summer’s upon us. Down here in South Florida, it’s already hot, hot, hot. The gators are on the move, with a sighting on my street late one night this week. Huge softshell turtles are digging up my flower beds to lay many nests of eggs. But the kids have finished school. The snowbirds have flown up north home and families are leaving for vacation.
My creations are approximately 90% recycled materials. I’m always in search of glass from busted up shower doors and colored or stained glass, especially brighter colors. Please let me know if I can take it off your hands. ;) Thank you for your interest in my artwork.
(C) Kelly Jadon, 2024
The Law and the Seahorse
Panoramic View of Biscayne Bay, Wikipedia, CC Lic.
Last week I spoke to a visitor to Jensen Beach. He and his wife were in Martin County looking for an affordable home on the water. They wanted to get out of Miami. At the time, we were in the Sand & Sea Boutique on the Indian River. I spoke up when I saw him looking at my seahorse creations.
A well-spoken man, he told me about his former profession—a shrimper in Biscayne Bay during the 1980s. As he netted shrimp, he’d also netted seahorses, pulling them up from their anchors in tropical waters. The shrimper said that if he’d thrown the seahorses back, they wouldn’t have survived, so he’d donated many of them to a local city aquarium.
The seahorses, he stated, were every color of the rainbow.
Biscayne Bay is a subtropical lagoon, a shallow with meadows of seagrass and corals, to the east of Miami. The north end of the bay is home to downtown Miami. The southern portion of the lagoon is a part of Biscayne National Park and is pretty much undeveloped. It’s about 35 miles long, heading south into the upper Florida Keys.
Three types of seahorses inhabit Biscayne Bay.
Seahorses caught in fishing nets dragged on the bottom of the lagoon, are known as “bycatch.” Trawl fishing is a danger to the creatures.
In 2018, Emilie Stump, a Project Seahorse artist and writer, wrote about the continued live-bait shrimping in Biscayne Bay. According to a 1997 University of Miami report, the trawls cause “substantial damage to potential seahorse holdfasts.” Seahorses use their lengthy tails to anchor themselves to these corals at the lagoon bottom. Dr. Joe Serafy published a survey in 1997 revealing that “roller-frame trawls are also known to catch at least eight species of seahorse or pipefish in Biscayne National Park as bycatch.” In addition, Dr. Julia Baum published research, estimating “72,000 lined seahorses per year” are bycatch from 31 trawlers off Hernando Beach, in the Gulf of Mexico.
It is important to recognize the dangers of trawling to seahorses because these creatures are the health marker of our coastal seas. If they are protected, our Florida waters will survive and thrive.
How do coastal waters retain their naturalness when more than 22 million and a half people live on its periphery?
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a law to create Biscayne National Monument in 1968. It was expanded in 1974, and again in 1980 when Congress created Biscayne National Park in 1980.
Yet the bait shrimp trawling was continued to be permitted in Biscayne Bay. Why?
In 1974, the Florida Legislature created the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve. In 1975, it created the Biscayne Bay-Cape Florida to Monroe County Line Aquatic Preserve.
The waters directly around the State of Florida belong to Florida, therefore, the responsibility of maintaining them, belongs to the State. Who is the State of Florida? Florida residents are. It is the responsibility of Florida residents to make sure that their coastal waters survive. Leaders are elected and put in place to accomplish these things.
The current Director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Division of Marine Fisheries Management is Jessica R. McCawley.
Shrimp trawling around the coastal waters of Florida continues to be permitted. Why?
Laws were necessary in the past to preserve large areas of coastal waters. Laws must be made and updated to protect coastal areas around Florida where seahorses live. They are the flagship of our waters’ health. As seahorses are protected, coastal seas will be preserved for future generations.
Dwarf Seahorse, KJadon, 2024, Available At Sand & Sea Boutique, Jensen Beach, FL
© Kelly Jadon, 2024
The Florida Seahorses
Lined Seahorse Blue Heron Bridge, FL 6/19/11 Spectacular seahorse. Looked dull brown before lit up with the strobes. He was hauling ass (if a seahorse can) across the bottom. By Matt Sullivan from Boston, MA, USA, Wikipedia, CC Lic.
Several years ago, my husband and I were out on Hutchinson Island on the dock across the street from the House of Refuge. A man was there netting fish. On this occasion, he’d also caught a seahorse! There are in fact, three different types of seahorses native to Floridian waters.
I’ve recently read Seahorses: A Life-Size Guide to Every Species by Sara Lourie. The author has a Ph.D. in the science of seahorses and has made their study and preservation her life’s work. Fascinating!
Dwarf Seahorse by Will Thomas, Wikipedia, CC. Lic.
In the world, there are approximately 50 various types of seahorse. The tiniest may be the size of a bean!
Often, their colors blend with their environment for protection. Their camouflage normally includes mottling, spots, and stripes. They have crowns, little frills, and points like spikes. The creatures swim slowly in an upright position, and are usually found in coastal waters anchored by their tails to seagrass, mangroves, coral, etc.. Their long snouts are used to suction in tiny invertebrates.
During courtship, they are seen waltzing.
The male seahorse will carry fertilized eggs and then give birth to them. How many? Some seahorses birth thousands!
Aqua Jeweled Seahorse, Kelly Jadon 2024, Available at Sand & Sea 3/21/24
Currently, I’m creating a series of seahorses. They can be viewed or purchased at the Sand & Sea Boutique in Jensen Beach, Florida.
This Dwarf Seahorse is found around the Florida Keys!
Dwarf Seahorse, Layered Stained Glass, Resin Finish Kelly Jadon, 2024
(C) Kelly Jadon