Seahorses: Fisheries, traditional medicine, culture values and trade in Malaysia / Reana Ng May Yen

Reana , Ng May Yen (2024) Seahorses: Fisheries, traditional medicine, culture values and trade in Malaysia / Reana Ng May Yen. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaya.

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Abstract

Seahorses (Hippocampus spp.) are well known for their importance ecologically, medicinally, commercially, and culturally among many communities. Although seahorses are broadly sold for traditional medicine (TM), as curios, and as aquarium fishes in Southeast Asia, documentation on the current nature and extent of seahorse trade, fisheries, and cultural-specific uses in Malaysia are limited. Therefore, this study aimed to quantify seahorse trade characteristics, historical and recent patterns of seahorse bycatch, and gear-specific biological parameters of caught seahorse in Malaysia as well as address cultural knowledge gaps by examining how ethnicity and other socio-demographic drivers shape seahorse use among Malaysians. Questionnairebased TM, fisher, and public surveys were administered in Malaysia from March 2021 to March 2023. A total of 40% of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners/ traders (n = 138), 3% of Malay TM practitioners (n = 3), and 88% of TM traders of other ethnic groups (n = 7) reported selling seven species sourced locally and imported. Current supply volume and selling price of seahorses were higher than those historically sold but present-day demand was reportedly lower than in the past. A total of 71% of fishers (n = 612) had caught seahorses, mostly as bycatch using gill or drift nets (73%). Most seahorses caught were small-sized (≤ 13 cm) and of the species Hippocampus kuda. Total estimated annual seahorse catch in gill or drift nets (2,589 kg/ year) was higher than trawls (787 kg/ year). Only 21% of respondents reported consuming seahorses (34% for medicinal use, 56% for other non-medicinal uses, and 10% for both use types). All ethnic groups reported using seahorses. In the public group, medicinal use was more common among the Chinese respondents while in the fisher group, other uses were more common among the Malay respondents. The Indian and indigenous respondents who were expected to have no association with seahorse use, reported consuming seahorses. All four threats were considered as major seahorse threats by most public respondents with higher awareness of the degree of severity of habitat destruction and ocean plastic pollution compared to overfishing and bycatch. Bycatch was perceived as a major threat more than other threats but fishers were mostly unsure of the existence and/or severity degree of threats. There is still considerable demand of seahorses with almost half of the TCM practitioners/ traders selling seahorses. Given that gill and drift nets account for large proportion of seahorse bycatch, there is a need for effort reduction of gill and drift fisheries in addition to trawl fisheries. The low prevalence of seahorse use among Malaysians is an encouraging finding from the conservation perspective of local seahorses. However, the higher degree of other uses compared to medicinal use suggests the need to focus on these types of uses. This should be coupled with implementing and enforcing seahorse trade regulations to ensure sustainability of seahorse trade, fisheries, and use in Malaysia.

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