Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash

This is the moment a tiny seahorse is filmed in a Venice canal as the waterways’ ecosystem continues to recover during the coronavirus lockdown.

The video was recorded by Raniero Campello, 58, who was walking his dog in Venice and saw the small animal in the clear waters of the city’s canal in the northern Italian region of Veneto.

Army officer Campello, who has been living in Venice for three years, told Newsflash: “I recorded it in a canal near my house, I was walking my dogs and I was alone”.

The video has received over 220,000 views on social media and was published in Italian newspapers.

Campello told Newsflash: “I live in Venice because my wife is from here.I was walking my dogs near my place when I spotted something unusual.

“It was a seahorse, and I decided to record it so that I could show it to those at home.I have posted it on Facebook and I did not imagine it would get the attention of so many people. It is amazing! I could not believe it.”

The lack of tourists in Venice due to the coronavirus lockdown has made the waters of the waters of the city’s famous canals clear.

Campello told Newsflash: “We are living in a quiet, fantastic city with calm waters that were last seen 60 years ago without the invasion of tourists. But it (the lack of tourism) will be a huge problem for the economy.”

The region of Veneto has been in lockdown since early March and other animals have been spotted in Venice’s waters, most recently an octopus near the Piazzale Roma.

According to the latest figures from the Johns Hopkins University, Italy has registered 205,463 cases with COVID-19 and 27,967 deaths.

Netizen ‘Stefania Rizzardo Argenton’ said: “Beautiful! I have not seen them since years ago”.

And ‘Pietro Berlingieri’ said: “When I was a child I saw them in Lido, but seeing them in a canal is fantastic”.