The Seahorse Trust
The Seahorse Trust is a charity very close to our hearts. These extraordinary little creatures are killed in their millions every year to be part of jewellery or for Chinese medicine and for sale as pets. And their death is not a pleasant one – they are hauled out of the ocean and left to suffocate on the beach in boiling heat and pain to dry them out. If things carry on the way they are, seahorses will be extinct in less than 30 years. This is an awful thing to contemplate and we must do all we can to prevent this. You can help by not buying jewellery or other trinkets containing real seahorses and by helping to support The Seahorse Trust in their fabulous work to help save these marvellous marine animals.
Seahorses enjoy a bit of romance and pair up as the perfect couple and so are an ideal symbol for true love. The Seahorse Trust was set up in 1999 as an umbrella organisation to preserve and conserve the marine environment using Seahorses as their flagship species. They work in partnership with many organisations and people from all over the world.
Seahorses are a unique fish species that occupy the coastal areas of most of the world and they are under threat, being vulnerable to human and natural interference they suffer badly and by working together we can make a difference to their future and the future of these fragile eco-systems.
The Seahorse Trust is responsible for overseeing and working in partnership with a number of research projects around the world, through a loose collection of seahorse groups called the Seahorse Alliance. These include surveying seahorses to learn more about their behaviour, how captive breeding differs from when in the wild, and looking at their nutritional needs. These projects will share information with researchers and students around the world, and in this way, techniques will be passed between projects. We hope that more will be then be known about these amazing little ‘horses of the sea’.
Teresa, owner and Founder of Wildflower Promotions is a true example of how a person and their business can make the most amazing difference to the natural world, she directly connects business with conservation and doesn’t just talk about it
Apart from volunteering with The Seahorse Trust on its illegal trade work, she has also dedicated a wildflower seed packet to raise funds for the trust. And its work and the funds raised are invaluable ot the ongoing success of our conservation and educational work, here at The Seahorse Trust.
All I can say its Tereas is an amazing person and the ethos of her company is an example to businesses trying to make a difference to the natural work.
The Seahorse Curio Trade
The curio trade, those ‘innocent’ mementos from seaside visits, cause death and destruction to millions of specimens every year, and because of this a breakdown of the habitats they live in. This trade is on an industrial scale around the world, forcing so many species and habitats nearer to extinction with many never being able to come back from that brink.
Dried seahorses are killed and sold as trinkets, taxidermy and jewellery. They die a totally unnecessary and horrific death by being laid out on the sand to roast alive in the hot sun.
If you see seahorses being sold online via places such as Etsy and Ebay, to name but two, please contact the Seahorse Trust and let them know. It is illegal to sell seahorse products as they are protected under CITES, Appendix II.
The Seahorse Medicine Trade and Aquarium Trade
Every year a staggering 150 million-plus seahorses are used in the traditional medicine trade. Seahorses and other creatures (land and sea) are used for supposed cures for many ailments. However, scientific research shows there is no basis for any of the claims made that seahorses can cure ailments.
The problem has grown in the last 20 to 25 years. The users of natural cures have become wealthier, so they no longer go to traditional markets and buy seahorses to take home and make their own medicines. These days, commercially prepared seahorse pills are sold to save time. These pills contain undersized seahorses that have not had a chance to grow to maturity and breed.
Then there is the aquarium trade, catching over 1 million seahorses a year from the wild to sell o as live specimens, even though few survive for more than a few weeks.
What the Seahorse Trust is Doing to Save Seahorses
The Seahorse Trust has a number of projects it is involved in:
- The Wild Seahorse Survey
- The British Seahorse Survey
- Studland Seahorse Project
- Ecomoorings
- Malta Seahorse Project
- Proyecto Seahorse peru
- Bermuda Seahorse Project
- as well as education, finding and reporting seahorse sellers and reseacrh.
20p from each Seahorse Trust seed packet wedding favour sold will go towards the charity’s efforts to stop the world’sd seahorses from becoming extinct.
Registered charity number 1086027.
