Based on 16 months of field observations on tagged seahorses Hippocampus comes in the Philippines, adults were found to be nocturnal, to maintain small home ranges, and to live mostly among corals. Prolonged pair associations suggested that H. comes, like many other seahorse species, were probably monogamous, a conclusion consistent with their low density and sparse distribution. Site and mate fidelity suggest that H. comes populations may fare poorly under current high levels of exploitation.

Despite a growing interest in incorporating fisher knowledge into quantitative conservation assessments, there remain practical impediments to its use. In particular, there is some debate about the accuracy of fisher knowledge. In this study, we report an attempt to quantify assumptions about how accurately fishers report past events (retrospective bias). Then we examine how the assumption we make about retrospective bias affects the characterization of changes in the fishery and extinction risk. We link fisher interviews and fisher logbooks to establish a catch rate (catch per unit of effort) trend for the history of a data-poor, small-scale seahorse fishery in the Philippines. We find that fishers perceive historic declines in fishing rate that are not apparent in more recent logbook trends, and the extent of the decline (and therefore extinction risk) hinges on assumptions we make about the accuracy of fisher recall. Scenarios that ignore retrospective bias result in the most severe declines and the most worrying extinction risk classifications. Furthermore, the historic baseline set by interviews suggests that relying on recent decades of data alone may underestimate extinction risk for our study species, and others that have been historically exploited. Attempting to link interviews with logbooks also illustrates differences between fisher-derived datasets: retrospective interviews may exaggerate early fishing rates and capture less variability than logbooks. In addition to being the first seahorse fishery reconstruction, our work contributes to the emerging interest in how fisher knowledge can guide conservation assessment. Future studies that incorporate fisher knowledge into quantitative assessments require (1) clearly stated assumptions about fisher knowledge bias; (2) clear criteria to compare fisher knowledge collected with different methods; (3) evaluation of the impact of assumptions on assessments.

Policy development related to marine protected areas (MPAs) occurs at three levels: international, national, and local. Recent developments with MPAs highlight their close links to broader national-level park and protected area policies, which in turn take their lead from initiatives and recommendations initiated, and increasingly dictated, by international organizations. Local-level inputs to MPA policies have tended to be limited to the immediate local area context despite the vital importance of community-level support and knowledge in meeting broader regional goals of marine conservation tied to networked MPAs. In this paper, we highlight the mechanisms to facilitate cooperation and communication among international, national, and local levels of policy and practice needed to address this deficit. These include the creation of a social network of institutions that both internationalizes and localizes MPA policy development, facilitating a more meaningful engagement of local people through their legitimate participation in national and international MPA gatherings. In addition, mechanisms to formalize partnerships, feedback information, resolve conflicts, and report accountabilities are needed. The success of the latter will depend on the level of recognition and support given to community-level institutions as opposed to the suite of technical training and short-term project-based interventions that have characterized local support over recent decades.Keywords Marine protected area policy Á Governance Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.

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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) were caught live for the aquarium trade. Catch per unit effort for P. volitans was double that of E. draconis, probably because of its occurrence in shallower waters where fishing effort was concentrated. Sea moths may be unsuited for heavy exploitation as they occur at low densities. Moreover, a female-biased catch could lower the effective population size, given the reported monogamy amongst sea moths. No population data were available for a complete conservation assessment, although divers surveyed did report declines in their abundance.

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Pamana Ka Sa Pilipinas (Pamana) is a grassroots fisherfolk alliance of Philippine Marine Protected Areas with more than 6,000 individual fisherfolk and their 30,000 family members. Access to food, education, and health services for Philippine fisherfolk families is directly dependant upon the fish harvest and related health of the marine environment. Pamana represents a unique "ecohealth" strategy, linking the health of coastal people and that of their surrounding marine ecosystem. Pamana's activities are viewed by both their membership and barangay (village) health workers as a contribution to nutritional and community health. The alliance has developed an approach to the empowerment of fisherfolk that has led to improvement in health, food security, and nutritional status of their communities. The development of Pamana provides a model for building capacity in other fishing- and resource-based cultures, through engagement and empowerment. In less developed countries, grassroots initiatives, such as Pamana, may be the only solution for sustainable fisheries contributions to food security, given the challenges of fisherfolk poverty, environmental degradation, and limited finances.