More of my photos of Seahorses here
Just over three weeks ago, we had a wonderful time looking at dozens and dozens of Seahorses. The next day, I really struggled to find one. I was hoping that the late time of day made it difficult to see them on that afternoon, but a long swim on Sunday morning confirmed my fears: most of the Seahorses have been fished out. This was further confirmed by some people from our group talking to local fishermen, who were holding handfuls of the dead creatures. This sad occurrence has been on my mind since then, and I'm reaching out to start a discussion and request ideas for a solution.
Wikipedia asserts that over 20 million Seahorses are used every year for medicinal purposes.
While it would be easy to demonize the Chinese people for eating animals we find cute, and dismiss the local fishermen as stupid for trying to earn a living, I believe the roots of the problem lie deeper.
I came across a similar problem in South Africa almost thirty years ago. Perlemoen , the local name of Abalone, was being poached in increasing numbers, mostly because of an increasing demand on the Far East markets, ease of international communication and transport, and increasing standards of living.
Nowadays, despite drastic legislation and big efforts at policing the situation, the poaching still continues and the number of shells found in the wild have plummeted.
I believe the seahorses we have in the Bilene lagoon are Giraffe seahorse . There is some confusion in the endangered status of this species, as the IUCN Red List shows there is no public data available to make a judgement about it. Meantime, Fish Base says " International trade is monitored through a licensing system (CITES II, since 5.15.04) and a minimum size of 10 cm applies."
Very few of the specimen we came across were as big as that, and since this is Africa, there is very little enforcement of the catch size.
The high population resilience characteristic is supported by "minimum population doubling time less than 15 months", but that is little comfort if more than half the population is fished out every year, and more importantly, before the specimen reach sexual maturity.
Therefore, the question I am asking is how best can we address this problem for the long term ?
Should we just shrug, be happy with the memories and photos and accept the unavoidable disappearance of these cute fish?
Should we keep the information about where the seahorses are a secret, and hope the local fishermen don't come across their habitat by chance?
Should we request that the authorities invest more resources into control and repression?
What are your thoughts on the matter? Please use the comments to discuss this issue, suggest possible solutions, or describe schemes that have worked elsewhere.
Stay tuned for more diving news, don't hold your breath,
Daniel ;-)
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