Global assessments alone just aren’t enough, Part 2

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.

Discovering the hidden life of the Knysna seahorse

The Knysna seahorse is the most threatened seahorse in the world. It was the first seahorse to be listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List in 2004. It is no surprise that this seahorse is so threatened, seeing that it is only found in 3 estuaries along the south coast of South Africa. Even though there have been various studies on the Knysna seahorse in the past, we don’t know much about its life history – how fast does it grow, how far does it move, how many are there?

From poaching to conservation - searching for seahorses in Mozambique

This is the inspiring story of how a large haul of dried seahorses poached from the waters of a tiny town in Mozambique led to seahorse conservation and research! It is also the story of how I came to meet some of the amazing syngnathid species we have along the African coast.

The "amazing race" to uncover seahorse trade and exploitation in the Philippines

We recently set out on an amazing race, criss-crossing the Philippines by plane, boat, bus and car in less than 3 months, to uncover seahorse trade and exploitation. We discovered that 1.7+ million seahorses are caught per year in the Philippines, compared to over 4 million per year 20 years ago.

Meet Richard Smith, the pygmy seahorse expert

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!