Millions of seahorses worth $29M smuggled illegally, study finds

Nearly five million smuggled seahorses were seized globally by authorities over a 10-year period, Canadian researchers found, warning it’s only the “tip of the iceberg” in an illegal trade that is likely far larger in scale.

To track how widespread the issue is, researchers at the University of British Columbia pored over public seizure reports and news stories shared between 2010 and 2021, finding nearly 300 seizures of seahorses involving 62 different countries. 

In total, the five million seahorses seized were worth an estimated $29 million ($21 million US), they said in a study recently published Conservation Biology.

Dried seahorses are often sought for use in traditional medicine. The most common destinations for them are China and Hong Kong, the study found, but they can be purchased in Canada online and in traditional medicine shops.

Because the study’s conservative estimates are only drawn from public records, the “real scale of illegal seahorse trade will be much bigger,” said Sarah Foster, lead author and a researcher at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, who is also program lead at Project Seahorse, a marine conservation organization.

While none of the study’s publicly reported seizures were in Canada, 19 “enforcement files” related to seahorses have been opened since 2020, according to a statement from Environment and Climate Change Canada. That includes 15 in the Pacific region, “primarily involving dried seahorses or seahorse-based products (e.g., traditional medicines or supplements).”

A tangled network

The study also offers details on smuggling methods and the complexity of smuggling routes, said Foster.

Most seahorse seizures involved passenger luggage in airports, but the largest volumes were moved by ship, she said. In the sea cargos, they were often traded alongside other wildlife, like pangolins, elephant ivory, penguin scales, sea cucumbers and shark fins. 

“So in devising strategies to find and flag illegal seahorse trade, authorities will also be helping to address that issue for other marine and other wildlife species,” said Foster.

In one unusual seizure recorded in Vietnam, the seahorses seemingly came from Peru; but when authorities looked into the species, they found that they were originally from West Africa.

“These seahorses had gone [from] West Africa, [to] Peru, [and] Vietnam on their way, purportedly, to eventually end up in mainland China,” she said.

To counter this global trade, governments need to work together to share information and strategies on how to catch smugglers, said Foster. And more importantly, she added, guard against the threat to the species and biodiversity.

Ripple effect of the trade

Seahorses can be legally traded under rules outlined by the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an agreement signed by 183 countries, including Canada.

Exporters are required to have a permit, proving their trade is monitored, legally sourced and doesn’t harm populations.

“Those permits are very, very hard to get,” said Max Valentine, campaign director of illegal fishing and transparency for Oceana, an international advocacy organization for ocean conservation. 

“Most of this illegal trade is [from] people who are not catching them with the permits, or with the regulations in place.”

Currently, two seahorse species are considered critically endangered, and another 13 are considered vulnerable to extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Endangered seahorses find a home in underwater hotels

Frames of biodegradable metal are being installed underwater off Australia’s east coast to provide a home for the endangered White’s Seahorses. The structures will eventually corrode, leaving a semi-natural reef that will help the wider ecosystem and give seahorses a chance to recover their species’ population.

Illegal harvesting has serious repercussions not just on seahorse populations, but also on the underwater environment as a whole, said Valentine. 

Seahorses are usually caught by bottom trawling — using large, weighed-down nets dragged across the ocean floor — which Valentine says is “widely considered one of the most destructive fishing practices on the planet.” 

“[The nets] rip up all of the habitat that they come in contact with,” she said. “By the time they’ve pulled these nets out of the water, everything is already dead. So we’ve lost all of that biomass, all of those organisms from the environment.”

Taking seahorses out of the environment also disrupts the food chain, she said, affecting the populations seahorses feed off of, and those that eat them, too. 

Saving the sea one seahorse at a time

Valentine said when she first heard of this “bombshell” seahorse smuggling study, she was “shocked and appalled.”

“To learn that there’s been such a devastating harvest, illegal harvest of these species … is really disappointing.”

By shedding light on the issues seahorses face, the study’s authors say they hope they can bring attention to the broader threats encountered by marine life.

“People really love seahorses, they capture people’s imagination,” said Foster. “We’re fond of saying, by saving seahorses we will save the seas.”