Community-based management for a sustainable seahorse fishery

The seahorse fishery (for traditional medicines. aquarium fishes and curios) is large. global. and economically important. It also appears to be unsustainable. with seahorse numbers declining markedly where fished. Handumon village (borongoy) in the central Philippines. where the first seahorse conservation and management pro1ect was implemented in January 1995. is particularly dependent on seahorses. Early socio-economic study provides the template for current co-management efforts. These include protective measures, fishery modifications and enhancement efforts: (I) the barangoy established and now enforces a 33-ha no-exploitation sanctuary and an ad1acent traditional fishing zone: (2) fishers place newly caught pregnant maies into sea cages whence newborn young can escape before ,he male is sold: (3) fishers re-seed areas depleted cf seahorses and have begun developing seahorse culturing skills. The eventual goal is for the borangoy to take full responsibility for the project.

Vincent, A.C.J., & Pajaro, M.G. (1997). Community-based management for a sustainable seahorse fishery. In Developing and sustaining world fisheries resources–the state of science and management. 2nd world fisheries congress (pp. 761-766).