Monitoring landed seahorse catch in a changing policy environment

Abstract

For many small-scale, tropical reef fisheries, landed catch may be the only data that can be monitored to assess the impacts of management. This is true for seahorses Hippocampus comes that are obtained as part of a multi-species fishery in the Philippines. Here, because seahorses are locally rare and depleted, it is difficult to attain large enough sample sizes to detect changes over time using underwater surveys. We assessed changes in seahorse sales at 2 sites, from 1996 and 2005 respectively to 2010. The study period covered local and national conservation initiatives that could affect seahorses and dependent fisheries: establishment of marine reserves (1998 onwards), a community-led minimum size limit (MSL: 2002(MSL: to 2004) and a national ban on seahorse fishing (from 2004). The MSL appeared to lead to increased sizes of seahorses in trade, as hoped, while the national ban led, perversely, to more fishers selling seahorses. Declines in overall take after 2004 or 2007 (depending on the site) is likely linked to declining seahorse populations rather than reduced effort, especially when one considers the increased number of fishers and the price per seahorse. It is notable that communities decided on the MSL, whereas the government imposed the ban on capturing seahorses. In this small-scale, multi-species fishery, monitoring a wide range of variables intensively over a relatively long time scale allowed us to identify key differences between small-scale and industrial fisheries management, and also to document the biological and social consequences of management action for a depleted, threatened species.

The hidden half: ecology and evolution of cryptobenthic fishes on coral reefs

“…While CRFs are generally of limited attractiveness to commercial fisheries, seahorses (Syngnathidae) are heavily fished in many developing countries. Despite being listed as IUCN endangered species and with limited data on population sizes, seahorses are caught in vast numbers [predominantly as bycatch in trawl fisheries (Baum, Meeuwig & Vincent, 2003)], and then sold on a large, global market (Martin-Smith & Vincent, 2006;Yasué et al, 2015). Significant population declines have been recorded for several species.…”

A global revision of the Seahorses Hippocampus Rafinesque 1810 (Actinopterygii: Syngnathiformes): Taxonomy and biogeography with recommendations for further research

“…Conservation of seahorse populations is important for ecological, biological, economic, and medicinal reasons, as well as for their intrinsic value (Vincent et al 2011). Their unique life history provides us with a significant opportunity to expand our understanding of reproductive ecology in animals (Masonjones & Lewis 2000;Jones & Avise 2001;Wilson et al 2003;Stölting & Wilson 2007); they are important predators on planktonic and benthic crustaceans such as copepods, amphipods, and mysids (Kendrick & Hyndes 2005;Felício et al 2006;Garcia et al 2012); subsistence fishers in some nations make a substantial portion of their annual income catching seahorses (Yasué et al 2015;Pajaro & Vincent 2016); and many forms of traditional medicine employ seahorses to treat a range of conditions and ailments (Kumaravel et al 2012;Chen et al 2015). Moreover, seahorses are charismatic symbols of their seagrass, mangrove, coral reef, estuarine and seaweed habitats (Simberloff 1998;Shokri et al 2009;Scales 2010).…”

Caracterización de las poblaciones de caballitos de mar en diferentes zonas de la costa norte de las regiones occidental y central de Cuba

“…Debido a su valor en la medicina tradicional asiática y como especie ornamental, son víctimas frecuentes del comercio internacional (Vincent, 1995;Loh et al 2016). Todo ello, junto con la degradación de sus hábitats, la captura indiscriminada para artesanías, el uso de artes de pesca poco selectivas y los cambios climáticos han provocado una declinación de sus poblaciones (Yasué et al 2015;Harasti, 2016). Por esta razón, desde el año 2004 todas las especies del género Hippocampus están incluidas en el Apéndice II de la Convención sobre el Comercio Internacional de Especies Amenazadas de Fauna y Flora Silvestres (CITES, 2004) y en la Lista Roja de especies amenazadas (UICN, 2009).…”