“I’ve dived a thousand times in Es Caló des Moro and never seen seahorses. Unfortunately, they saw him and I had to see him dead.” Ibiza bay in Sant Antoni municipality On August 12, he told the beach lifeguard to call the police. And who is meant by the word ‘they’ A group of Italian tourists pulled a seahorse out of the water. they passed it around as if it were a toy and they buried him in the sand.
In fact, the first witness of everything that happened, whose testimony is in the Local Police report, The 11-year-old girl trying to save the fish pulled the fish out of the sand and threw it into the water with it.. The horse was already dead.
“On the arrival of the Regional Beach Unit agents, they interviewed a witness. The witness said that the group played a game of passing the animal in question until it took its life and said that then he buried it in the sand“. They confirm the intervention of agents from the Sant Antoni City Council and draw attention to tourists “They said they found him dead while swimming on the beach.“, but they did not specify why they decided to play with him.
In any event, “The Police have prepared a report for the Balearic Government Environmental Service to record what has happened and participate if disciplinary proceedings are deemed appropriate, as well as to begin the preparation of appropriate procedures.”
Autopsy
The same sources state that: Fish “remained in the custody of the aforementioned beach’s rescue and first aid service”. In fact, the hippocampus was handed over to an oceanographer, who decided to analyze the body and perform an autopsy, and concluded that the animal appeared healthy. He probably drowned when they pulled him out of the sea..
Two species of seahorses can be found in the waters of the islands: Hippocampus hippocampus and H. guttulatus, also called Mediterranean seahorses, Es Caló de Moro and diversity that is easier to observe at shallow depthsin seaweed beds and posidonia meadows.
Seahorses are protected fish that are heavily damaged by illegal wildlife trafficking.; Millions are killed each year to supply the Chinese market; because Chinese traditional medicine attributes to China supposed properties that will cure impotence and kidney problems or increase fertility. It is dried and powdered and consumed in broths and alcoholic beverages. Likewise, seahorses, like starfish, have been slaughtered throughout history to sell their corpses as souvenirs.
In addition to these threats, syngnathids, a group that includes seahorses and pipefish, Very vulnerable to the effects of climate change and habitat destruction due to increased massification of coastlines.