Advancing marine conservation
Global seahorse populations (Hippocampus spp.) are under pressure from habitat degradation, accidental capture (bycatch), and direct exploitation. Seahorses are primarily traded for use in traditional Chinese medicine and its derivatives, but they are also sold as dried curiosities and live for ornamental display in aquariums. In 2002, all seahorse species were included on Appendix II …
Marking seahorses for research and husbandry was first undertaken in the early 1990’s. In the last fifteen years there has been notable progress adapting marking and tagging methods for perciform fish to the dissimilar morphology of seahorses, but published data remain scarce. Download technical report (pdf) Morgan, S. & C. Bull (2005). Potential Techniques for …
Seahorses, pipefishes and seadragons are marine fishes found globally which belong to the family Syngnathidae. These fishes are very popular within the public aquarium and the hobbyist communities. Historically seahorses were considered very difficult to maintain in a captive environment, but continued efforts by hobbyist and professional aquarium staff have resulted in the development of …
Seahorses have the potential to be flagship species for estuarine conservation around the world and considerable concern has arisen over their declining abundance in the face of exploitation. All seahorses were recently listed on CITES Appendix II in recognition of threats posed by unsustainable trade. However, the efficacy of this measure and the development of …
We present estimates of local population abundance, distribution and habitat preference for 2 European seahorse species, Hippocampus guttulatus and H. hippocampus. We predicted that these sympatric species would partition their habitat into 2 broadly defined habitat types: complex vegetated habitats and sparsely vegetated sand flats. We sampled populations using underwater visual census techniques over landscape (100s to …
Four distinct phylogeographical patterns across Southeast Asia were observed for four species of seahorse (genus Hippocampus) with differing ecologies. For all species, genetic differentiation (based on cytochrome b sequence comparisons) was significantly associated with sample site (ΦST = 0.190–0.810, P < 0.0001) and with geographical distance (Mantel’s r = 0.37–0.59, P < 0.019). Geographic locations of genetic breaks were inconsistent across species in 7/10 comparisons, although some similarities across …
Meeuwig, J., Samoilys, M., Erediano, J., & Koldewey, H. (2005). Fishers’ Perceptions on the Seahorse Fishery in Central Philippines: Interactive approaches and an evaluation of results. Fishers’ Knowledge in Fisheries Science and Management, 179-201.… Read more
We provide a quantitative account of local movements in the monogamous Australian species Hippocampus whitei, as a rare report of home range size in fishes living in seagrass habitats. Our study took place in shallow Posidonia seagrass beds in Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), principally during January to March. Daily monitoring of individual seahorses during underwater …
Download manual (pdf) Koldewey, H.J. (2005). Syngnathid husbandry in public aquariums 2005 manual. Project Seahorse, London, UK.… Read more
Sea moths (family Pegasidae) are little-studied benthic fish, found throughout the Indo-Pacific. Two species of sea moths, Pegasus volitans and Eurypegasus draconis, are caught incidentally in illegal trawl gear in the Philippines and sold into the dried fish trade. Approximately 130,000–620,000 P. volitans and 130,000 E. draconis were landed off north-western Bohol alone in 1996. An additional 43,000–62,000 sea moths (predominantly P. volitans) …