60 million seahorses disappear each year due to traditional Asian medicine

According to Planas, principal investigator in CSIC’s Ecology and Marine Resources group, these animals are likely to have some species that cannot be found outside of the Netherlands or Great Britain, with increasing ocean water temperatures caused by climate change. “Move further north.”

But according to a researcher from the Supreme Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), among the biggest threats are seahorses or seahorses (hippocampus) there is an array Traditional Chinese medicine recipes to which a number of health benefits are attributed“Sometimes it’s scientifically confirmed, sometimes not.”

action of the mafia

Mafias operate in areas with significant populations of seahorses, such as seahorses. Where “samples are illegally seized” in Peru or Southern Portugal.

“Thousands of seahorses captured in Spain, especially in Malaga It comes from illegal poaching, stuffed and ready to be shipped to China for traditional medicine.”

Another danger to this species is the “anthropogenic type” destruction of its habitats, such as areas with macroalgae or marine plants such as posidonia or seagrass.

Planas explains it “Every half hour, these plant communities the size of a football field are disappearing worldwide.”

Oceanidas NGO to protect the species, project Save Little Big SeahorseHe seeks to protect existing seahorse populations in the hands of the Sea Vigilantes Network, which has more than 2,000 divers, taking the advice of Miquel Planas.

Andalusia and Galicia

“The Mediterranean is much more susceptible to the emergence of these animals”explains the researcher and points out that it is possible to report up to six colonies of seahorses from the Oceanids in Andalusia and also in the Mediterranean. Galician Atlantic.

But he stresses that it’s “important” to continue investing in research to find out where the seahorses are found, because “there are still not many observations in the Bay of Biscay”, which limits the conservation of seahorses, according to the expert. species.

According to the organization currently seahorses Does not appear in Spain’s catalog of threatened species due to lack of data and studiesthose who collect their status and the number of specimens of the species that “seems to have decreased by almost half in the last fifty years.”

Although more than enough 50 species of seahorses in the world Spain has only two—mostly in areas in the Indian and Pacific oceans; hippocampus hippocampus And hippocampus guttulatus.

These species normally live at shallow depths of up to 10 meters, but rather “can be seen up to a hundred meters in Australian waters,” he says.

One of the great curiosities of these syngnathids (the family to which seahorses belong, along with sea fish and water dragons) is “It is the only species in which the male takes care of eggs and embryos.“The female is starting to produce a new batch of eggs while the male is still incubating the previous ones,” they also share the study.

ANDSeahorses live between four and five yearsThe researcher adds that their reproduction is limited, as cycles occur between spring and autumn, and “they only lay as many as 350 eggs at a time.”

Moreover, They are the only fish that swim vertically.They “evolved this way because it makes it easier for them to camouflage in seagrass beds,” Planas explains, adding that they have the ability to “camouflage and hide from their predators, usually larger fish.”

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Contact address of the environment department: [email protected]