The plight of Indian sea horses: Need for conservation and management

The increasing demand for seahorses in Asian traditional medicines, tonic food aphrodisiacs, as aquarium fishes, souvenirs and curios are concomitant with a decline in capture fisheries and destruction of habitats. The exploitation of seahorses along the Indian coast in the last decade has been alar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current science (Bangalore) 2002-02, Vol.82 (4), p.377-378
Main Authors: Sreepada, R. A., Desai, Ulhas M., Naik, Sushant
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological taxonomies
Coasts
CORRESPONDENCE
Environmental conservation
Habitat conservation
Hippocampus
Horses
Marine
Marine fishes
Seas
Species
Traditional medicine
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Summary:The increasing demand for seahorses in Asian traditional medicines, tonic food aphrodisiacs, as aquarium fishes, souvenirs and curios are concomitant with a decline in capture fisheries and destruction of habitats. The exploitation of seahorses along the Indian coast in the last decade has been alarming. Conservation and management are currently limited by the absence of data on the abundance and distribution of seahorses species in the region. This paper highlights the plight of Indian seahorses and the proactive initiatives taken by the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, India for their conservation and management. Seahorses could serve as a popular flagship species for engendering support for general concerns in marine conservation and sustainable management.
ISSN:0011-3891