Now this is among nature’s weirdest combos – a pouty horse’s head, a Lizard’s prehensile tail, a Kangaroo’s belly pouch, and a body decked out in organic armor plating!
Seahorses are among the world’s most interesting Fishes and belong to the genus Hippocampus (Greek for “horse-like creature”). There are at least 48 known species, 15 of which have been discovered in the past two decades.
They’re so cool that even Aquaman rides one to battle (although he rides a freakishly big, dragony-looking one).
ANCIENT BEINGS
Ranging in size from Borneo’s half-inch long Satomi’s Pygmy Seahorse (Hippocampus satomiae) to the foot-long Big-Belly Seahorse (H. abdominalis) of Australia and New Zealand, these vertically oriented Fishes inhabit the coastal waters of 130 countries, plus the open ocean where they survive amidst drifting flotsam and jetsam.
They’ve been around for at least 13 million years, when they diverged from normal, horizontally- oriented Pipefish to adopt a vertical or upright body orientation. This unusual adaptation allowed the now “tall” Fishes to lean forward when feeding, the perfect technique for these slow-moving Fishes to capture wriggly Fishes or Shrimp larvae.
PHOTOGRAPHER FAVORITE
One of the few animals where males get “pregnant” to give birth to babies (and where mated pairs can stay together for life), they’re also favorites of underwater photographers.
“Seahorses make great photography subjects as they come in different shapes and sizes. Plus, they adapt beautifully to their surroundings,” shares dive photographer Mark Carunungan. “I haven’t seen all of them, so spotting them in the wild is a bit like playing Pokémon Go.”
DEATH BY CAPTIVITY
Though best seen in the wild, Seahorses are a staple of the global trade in ornamental marine Fishes. Despite new techniques, equipment and the best efforts of many well-meaning hobbyists, most captive Seahorses still die within a few months because they require highly specialized set-ups to survive (they don’t get along with fast moving Fishes and require a continuous diet of hard-to-find zooplankton). In the Philippines, Seahorses can be kept only through a special permit.
Globally, the biggest threat to seahorses is the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) trade. Each year, millions of the slow-moving Fishes are plucked out of the sea, dried, and ground-up to treat various conditions, including asthma, arthritis, and apparently, baldness.
Even today, many Chinese drugstores in Manila, Cebu, Davao, and other hubs still quietly offer dried Seahorses and Pipefish (the horizontally-oriented cousins of Seahorses). When asked, shopkeepers usually claim that these have been imported from other countries.
PROTECTED UNDER PHILIPPINE LAW
The Philippines has 10 recorded Seahorse species, all listed under CITES Appendix II. “Seven of the 10 Seahorse species found in the Philippines are considered Vulnerable under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, while the remaining three are considered Data Deficient,” explains Chai Apale, Programme Leader for the Philippine Seahorse Programme under the Zoological Society of London. “As per Section 102 (b) of Republic Act 10654 or the amended Philippine Fisheries Code, it is illegal to fish, take, catch, gather, sell, purchase, possess, transport, export, forward or ship out aquatic species classified under CITES Appendix II.”
As a precautionary measure, all Seahorses in the Philippines are protected by a national blanket ban under Republic Act 8550 under Fisheries Administrative Order 223, superseded by the Amended Fisheries Code.
Despite all this legal protection, they are still caught and sold illegally by fisherfolk, lured by cash-toting middlemen supplying TCM drugstores. Researchers estimate that 1.7 million seahorses have been collected in the Philippines each year since 2004.
“The provinces of Iloilo, Masbate, Sulu, Bohol and Palawan account for 80% of the national catch estimate,” adds Chai, whose group is currently working with the Bureau of Fisheries to develop a three-year programme to help conserve all Philippine seahorse species.
MEET THE SEAHORSES OF THE PHILIPPINES
The Philippines has a stable of 10 of the world’s 48 described Seahorse species, ranging in size from the fingernail-sized Pontoh’s Pygmy Seahorse to the nearly one-foot tall Kellogg’s Seahorse. Meet and greet our undersea equines here!
BETTER THAN USING SEAHORSES
Environmental group Best Alternatives is now pushing for science-based medicinal alternatives to dried Seahorses: asthma for instance can be treated with Ventolin, arthritis with Ibuprofen, and baldness with Finasteride (or a cheap wig). Western medicine is usually more accessible and affordable than buying dried Seahorses, which can cost upwards of PHP30,000 per pound.
Those who want to keep them can choose more sustainable options, like floating plastic or rubber Seahorse replicas (we have one in our tank and he looks realistic even close-up). Best Alternatives doesn’t recommend keeping the closely-related Pipefishes either, as their care requirements are similar and too difficult for most hobbyists.
EXPLORING ALTERNATIVES
As a longer-term solution however, and given that the TCM trade is not likely to stop targeting Seahorses anytime soon, then other approaches might carefully be considered.
An asymmetric approach being used in the United States and its territories is commercial-scale captive breeding. “A possible species management solution could be to legally breed [S]eahorses in captivity under the close scrutiny of the BFAR,” says VB Consultancy Founder Jonah van Beijnen. “These amazing [Fishes] aren’t that hard to breed and can be produced in backyard hatcheries. Unlike most marine [Finfish undergoing] a specialized larval stage, [S]eahorses give birth to tiny young which look almost exactly like their parents, making the farming process much easier.”
The main hurdle of captive breeding is that illegally caught wild Seahorses might be passed off by unscrupulous sellers as captive-bred specimens. “Experts however, can easily tell the difference as a batch of captive-bred Seahorses will have more or less uniform size and coloration, generally looking healthy and free of scratches, parasites, and diseases.”
When certified by the government as legally and ethically-bred, these Seahorses can be exported to supply the global aquarium trade, as live Seahorses can retail for over Php 10,000 apiece in foreign markets catering to specialized hobbyists who have the setups and know-how to keep these Fishes alive. Groups like the Hawaii-based Seahorse.com and US Mainland-based Seahorse.Savvy have been doing this for years.
Jonah posits that BFAR-certified hatcheries, regularly inspected by experts, can be explored as an option to give coastal communities legal livelihood opportunities. “With climate change hitting our coastal fishing communities hard, alternative and supplemental livelihoods are badly needed. Coastal communities could be able to breed them, plus other marine aquarium [Fishes] legally, while releasing a portion of their stocks in areas where Seahorses once thrived – helping repopulate denuded coral reefs and seagrass meadows. This can be a win-win situation for all.”
With Seahorse farms in full gallop abroad, pilot testing them locally might make some Horse sense. Until the government rolls out a more concrete plan however, let’s give these beautiful armored Fishes the leeway to live, love, and swim free.
