Catch and trade bans for seahorses can be negated by non‐selective fisheries

Abstract

All seahorse species (genus Hippocampus) are listed under Schedule I of India's Wild Life Protection Act, making all capture and trade of seahorses illegal. In the more than 15 years since the ban, little work has been done to assess its effects on seahorse conservation. Between 2015 and 2017, fisheries and trade surveys were conducted along the south‐east coast of India, in the state of Tamil Nadu, historically known to be a hub for seahorse catches and trade. Seahorses were primarily landed as bycatch, although in greater quantities by traditional drag nets than as trawl bycatch. Total annual catches were estimated between 4.98 million and 13.64 million seahorses, 87% of which were caught by active non‐selective gear. Generalized additive models revealed that seahorse catch per unit effort had non‐linear relations with depth and latitude, and were higher in biogenic habitats, with active, bottom‐used, and non‐selective gears (e.g. trawls). The illegal nature of the trade in seahorses hampered an understanding of trade routes and trade volumes. Catch estimates indicated that 11.21–30.31 tonnes of seahorses probably entered trade, yet interviews with traders only documented trade of about 1.6 tonnes. Fishers reported a decreasing availability of seahorses. Since most seahorses come from bycatch in persistent fisheries that are not directly affected by the ban on seahorse capture, this decline is likely to represent a population decline. A fishery and trade ban for incidentally caught species, particularly in a poorly regulated fishery, appears to add little conservation value. There needs to be a shift in the management approach, moving from a ban towards spatial and temporal restrictions, and toward enforcing existing fishery regulations.

Density Decline in a Mediterranean Seahorse Population: Natural Fluctuations or New Emerging Threats?

“…It has been estimated that approximately 37 million seahorses are caught each year as a bycatch, predominantly in developing countries (Lawson et al, 2017;Foster et al, 2019). Seahorses are usually collected in South America (Perù, Mexico) (Baum and Vincent, 2005;Rosa et al, 2011), Africa (Senegal), Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Philippine, Viet Nam, Cambodia) (Lawson et al, 2017), India (Vaidyanathan et al, 2020) and are illegally smuggled to China that seems to represent the foremost trading hub for the trafficking of dried seahorses. According to Kuo and Vincent, 2018, routes of wildlife trade have a dynamic network.…”

50 years and counting: Indian Wildlife Protection Act through the lens of marine fishers

“…Also, the lack of a concrete interdepartmental coordination in both awareness and conservation action, in this case between the forest department who enacts and enforces the law, and sheries department which considers all these focal taxa as a 'resource'. The absence of effective management plans to reduce the shing capacity and bycatch, is yet another impediment in achieving the set targets of WLPA [42]. Hence, we argue for a management strategy that must transcend beyond WLPA, as mere 'hunting and trade ban' policies might foster several socio-economic and conservation impediments such as illegal wildlife trade and associated criminal activities [60].…”

Diversity of Seahorse Species (Hippocampus spp.) in the International Aquarium Trade

“…Even if there is a shift towards aquaculture operations, this will not motivate fishers to prevent the capture of seahorses as bycatch because they still use nonselective fishing methods such as trawling [140,242]. Therefore, increased efforts are needed to improve seahorse-fishing methods [23].…”