Take Two Seahorses and

Go to Bed.

There is increasing concern about the future of seadragons

and other syngnathids in Australian waters. Seahorses,

seadragons, and in particular, pipefish, are threatened

globally by habitat destruction. An estimated 20-

million seahorses(but not seadragons) are taken each

year for traditional Asian medicines. The international

trade in seahorse and pipefish involves more than

20 countries and is growing.

Fortunately seadragons currently are not used for

the medicine trade. However they may be targeted

in the aquarium fish trade. Keeping live seadragons

is extremely difficult and collectors often target males

with eggs, hatching out and selling the young. Removing

these brooding animals from the wild populations

may impact on local populations of seadragons. To

date, no successful, closed cycle, captive-breeding

program has occurred (ie: getting a generation of

captive-raised seadragons to breed). Economically

and environmentally, it makes sense to limit collection

and export of this species until we know more about

this them. Seadragons have a specific level of

protection under fisheries legislation federally and

in most Australian States where they occur, such

that it is illegal to take part or export them without

a permit.