Tiny Randy might just be the luckiest seahorse in history.

The sea creature took a wrong turn in the Channel and ended up off Southwick, hundreds of miles from home.

With the sea temperature plummeting, the short-snouted seahorse could not have survived for long.

But sharp-eyed fishermen Sam Brenchley and Liam Sweeney spotted him glistening on the deck of their boat after hauling in the net a mile offshore.

They took him to the Brighton Sea Life Centre, where he is recuperating before beginning a life of luxury - at a seahorse stud farm.

Mr Brenchley, of Southwick, said: "I've been fishing for 35 years and it is the first time I've caught one."

Sea Life Centre curator Peter Jones believes Randy wandered from the Channel Islands, where the nearest breeding colony is located.

He said: "The species is most abundant in the Mediterranean and it's very unusual for one to appear this late in the year."

A life of pampering awaits Randy at the National Seahorse Breeding and Conservation Centre in Weymouth, where he will join a small breeding group.

Uniquely in the animal kingdom, it is male seahorses which give birth.