Seahorse CSIC researcher Miquel Planas explained to Efe that these species are threatened by climate change, overfishing and poaching, and that more than 60 million specimens are trapped annually for use in traditional Asian medicine.
According to Planas, principal investigator in CSIC’s Marine Ecology and Resources group, these animals are likely to become extinct with the rise in ocean water temperatures caused by climate change, with some species not found outside the Netherlands or Great Britain. “We’re moving further north.”
But according to a researcher from the Supreme Scientific Research Council (CSIC), the biggest threats include seahorses, or seahorses (hippocampus) there is a series Traditional Chinese medicine recipes attributed to a number of health benefits“Sometimes it is scientifically confirmed, sometimes it is not.”
Action of mafias
Mafias operate in areas with significant seahorse populations, such as seahorses. Peru or southern Portugal, where “specimens were illegally seized.”
“Thousands of seahorses were seized in Spain, especially in Malaga “There are illegal catches stuffed and ready to be shipped to China for traditional medicine,” he says.
Another threat to this species is “anthropogenic destruction of habitats” such as macroalgal patches or marine plants such as Posidonia or Zostera.
Thousands of illegally hunted seahorses were seized in Spain, especially in Malaga
Planas explains this “Every half hour, these football field-sized plant communities disappear worldwide.”
To protect the species, the NGO Oceanidas promotes: project Save the Little Big SeahorseIt aims to preserve existing seahorse populations with the help of the Marine Observers Network, which includes more than 2,000 divers and takes advice from Miquel Planas.
Andalusia and Galicia
“The Mediterranean is much more susceptible to the emergence of these animals.”explains the researcher, noting that up to six seahorse colonies have been reported in Andalusia and also in the Mediterranean since the Oceanids. Galicia Atlantic.
But he emphasizes that it is “important” to continue investing in research to find out where seahorses are found, because, according to the expert, “there are still not many sightings in the Cantabrian Sea”, which limits the conservation of the species.
According to the organization, seahorses are currently Does not appear in Spain’s threatened species catalog due to lack of data and studiesIt includes their status and the number of specimens showing that the species has “nearly halved in the last fifty years.”
There are two types of seahorses in Spain; ‘Hippocampus hippocampus’ and ‘Hippocampus guttulatus’.
Although more 50 species of seahorses in the world -mostly in regions in the Indian and Pacific oceans-, while Spain has only two; hippocampus hippocampus And hippocampus guttulatus.
These species normally live at shallow depths of up to 10 metres, but “in Australian waters they can be seen at depths of up to a hundred metres,” he says.
One of the biggest curiosities of these syngnathids, a family to which seahorses, sea fish and water dragons also belong, is this: “It is the only species in which the male takes care of the eggs and embryos.”, they also share the study because “the female begins producing a new batch of eggs while the male is still incubating the previous eggs.”
ANDSeahorses live between four and five yearsBut because the cycles occur between spring and autumn, their reproduction is limited and “they only lay about 350 eggs at a time,” the researcher adds.
Moreover, It is the only fish that swims vertically.“They evolved this way because it made it easier for them to camouflage themselves in seagrass meadows,” explains Planas, adding that they have the ability to “see and hide from their predators, usually larger fish.”
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