This is the moment 11 threatened seahorses are released back into the wild after they were scooped up in fishermen’s nets off the coast of Spain.

The sea creatures were rescued and nursed back to health by marine experts at Oceanografic Valencia before being declared fit to go back to sea.

In the footage, divers prepare the seahorses for their return by putting them in a transparent box filled with seawater.

Then they are taken down to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea near Safor port before they are allowed to swim free into the safety of a coral reef.

Newsflash obtained a statement from Oceanografic Valencia on 5th July, saying: “The 11 seahorses entered the facilities of Oceanografic a few months ago after being accidentally extracted from the sea by getting tangled in the fishermen’s gear.”

The statement also said: “The collaboration of the fishing sector has been essential to activate the protocol for the rescue of marine fauna and to transfer the animals to the recovery centre of the Valencian aquarium.

“Once at the Oceanografic in the City of Arts and Sciences, the professionals from the Foundation provided them with the necessary veterinary care and check-ups – similar to those given to sea turtles – until they fully recovered and could be released in a location close to where they were extracted.”

The seahorses had originally been handed over to the aquarium by commercial fishermen who found them in their nets.

Some of the sea creatures were long-snouted seahorses (Hippocampus guttulatus), a protected species in Spain which are considered threatened.

Ocean experts said that some seahorse species are mainly endangered because humans like to collect them as decorative objects.

The statement explained: “This excessive desire and other factors such as the destruction of their habitats have led some species in the Mediterranean Sea to appear on the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

“The long-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus guttulatus), for example, is included in the Spanish Catalogue of Threatened Species.”