Our Red List Authority Coordinator, Elsa Camins recently attended SyngCo, a scientific conference dedicated to the conservation and research of seahorses and their relatives in Las Palmas De Gran Canaria.
We caught up with Elsa to hear about her experience representing the IUCN Seahorse, Pipefish and Seadragon Specialist Group, and how the meeting helped advance work to update International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessments for these iconic fishes.
We wanted to know the conservation status of seahorses, pipefishes and seadragons (syngnathids) at the national level and what, if any, national regulations exist to protect them? To this end, we spent weeks scouring literature, websites and government documents to determine which countries had assessed the conservation status of syngnathids at the national level.
Tucked away in coral kingdoms, with their otherworldly beauty and elusive nature, pygmy seahorses might seem more fairytale than fish. But IUCN Seahorse, Pipefish and Seadragon Specialist Group member Dr. Richard Smith is here to bridge the gap between fact and fable - he swims with them, he studies them, he photographs them. Recently, he even helped name one!
