Save Seahorses: Report Your Sightings!

We know very little about the population of seahorses around New Jersey and New York!

Understanding seahorses is crucial to the protection and conservation of this unique and beautiful fish. The more we know, the more we can do to protect them.

If you see a seahorse, please record your sighting to Save Coastal Wildlife Nonprofit so we may keep track of the location. and abundance of seahorses.

The Northern lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus) is the only native seahorse along the Jersey Shore.

Unfortunately, the population of Northern lined seahorses is poorly known in New Jersey and New York.

Although the lined seahorse is not considered federally or internationally threatened or endangered at this time, they are protected under Appendix II of CITIES (as are all seahorse species) due to the loss of habitat and pollution in their environment, and also due to the high aquarium and tourist trade globally for live and dead (dried) seahorses. These threats to seahorses go largely unregulated and are not properly managed under local fisheries organizations in New Jersey and New York.

There is also very little catch data from NJ Fish & Wildlife available for this species, making it difficult to determine trends. The State of New York does consider populations of the Northern lined seahorse to be on the decline.

The lined seahorse is listed by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List as “Vulnerable” due primarily to indirect evidence that numbers are continuing to decline.

Northern Lined Seashore Ecology

The Northern Lined Seashore (Hippocampus erectus) is the only native seahorse to be found along the Jersey Shore.

LOCATION (from Wikipedia): The lined seahorse range spans from the northern point of Nova Scotia, Canada, to the southern area of Venezuela in South America. They can be found on the east coast of America in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina, as well as in the waters surrounding Mexico and the Caribbean. Species found in Brazil seem to be of a different species; however, more research is needed to determine this proposal. The lined seahorse is native to the following locations: Nova Scotia, Canada, United States, Bermuda, Cuba, Mexico (Veracruz, Yucatán), Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, and Venezuela. It has also been recorded from the Azores but it is not clear that a population has become established in the waters around that archipelago.

Local Habitat Along the Jersey Shore: The seahorse is a poor swimmer, as a result this unique fish species will use its tail to wrap around underwater grass beds, oyster reefs, piers, pilings, ropes, crab pots, and other coastal/estuarine structures in shallow waters during the late spring, summer, and early fall. During the winter, there is limited evidence that local seahorses will retreat to deeper waters in the ocean or estuary.

Lifespan: Approximately 4 years in captivity under ideal conditions, but probably a lot shorter in the wild. Maybe about a year due to many human threats and stresses. In general, the lifespan of wild seahorses are unknown due to a lack of data.

Predators: Not many animals have been found locally to eat adult seahorses due to its ability to camouflage itself. Members of Save Coastal Wildlife Nonprofit have seen several species of gulls, including Great black-backed gulls, catch and eat seahorses over the years.

Feeding: The seahorse eats tiny crustaceans, mostly copepods, but also larval shrimp, amphipods, small worms and small snails. It ambushes its prey by changing colors to match its surroundings and wrapping its tail around an object to stay very still. It then sucks its prey into its long, tubular snout.

Reproduction: Males and females are monogamous, meaning they stay with the same mate for life. They go through an elaborate courtship ritual that includes the male became lighter in color and its brood pouch inflated. Prior to mating, the male and the female swam side by side and the male often touches a female's belly with his head. The tails of the male and female are often tangled together.

The female lays about 100 to 600 eggs (the exact number of eggs depends chiefly on her size) into the male’s brood pouch, where they are fertilized and incubate for approximately two to three weeks before hatching. Young seahorses, a small version of the adult, can swim independently. Juveniles are less than one-quarter of an inch long and quickly take on the habits of adult. Maturity is reached around 5-7 months of age.

After birth, courtship commences again between adults.

THREATS TO LINED SEAHORSES

The most severe threat to lined seahorses is commercial fishing. Both targeted in the Caribbean, Mexico and South America, and non-selective fishing (by-catch) everywhere else in the western Atlantic Ocean.

Studies in Florida have estimated that the live-bait shrimp trawl fleet (31 boats) working out of a single Gulf of Mexico port caught nearly 72,000 lined seahorse per year.

Given that the lined seahorse is among the most commonly traded seahorse species, particularly for ornamental display, evidence from fishing effort and the lowered global market supply of seahorses has raised concern about the status of population of this species in the western Atlantic Ocean.

The lined seahorse is found as bycatch in ocean trawl fisheries in New Jersey that catch fluke or summer flounder, crabs, dogfish, and other commercial species. Seahorses may also be accidentally caught in other non-selective fishing gear such as entangling nets, seine nets, or traps in the United States, Mexico and Central America, some of which is retained for export for use in the traditional Chinese medicine trade.

Fishermen can sell seahorses that they find in their nets, which would otherwise be thrown away, for a small profit.

Traditional Asian Medicine.

Tens of millions of dried seahorses are traded annually. The pressure from this trade has led to near global population declines. Seahorses are often used for Traditional Asian Medicine. It is thought that dried seahorses when crushed can cure asthma, skin infections, impotence and can act as a natural Viagra, as well as a growth promoter in children and a substitute for Botox, as well as a wide variety off other ailments. These ancient health-giving beliefs are not backed up by any scientific research or evidence. Any reactions from eating dried seahorses are more from the power of suggestion than a real remedy. Nevertheless, traditional Asian medicine takes in excess of up to 150 million seahorses a year from the wild, which is an unsustainable and regulated level of seahorse extraction. The problem has increased in the last several decades, so much so that commercially prepared seahorse pills are now often sold in stores in Asia. The pills contain undersized seahorses that have not had a chance to grow to maturity and breed.

PET TRADE

The pet trade also takes an estimated one million seahorses from the wild. Many of those live seahorses taken for the home-aquarium market will not survive more than six weeks. Seahorses require optimal water conditions to survive, which is not always possible to maintain in home aquariums. Captive lined seahorses are especially vulnerable to parasitic infections including microsporidians, including Glugea heraldi; a myxosporidian of the genus Sphaeromyxa; fungi; ciliates, including Uronema marinum; and nematodes.

THE CURIO TRADE

The curio trade, those natural mementos often sold at seaside tourist shops along the Jersey Shore, like dried seahorses, dried sea stars, dried pipefish, coral, sand dollars, shark jaws, and mollusk shells, can cause the death and destruction to millions of aquatic specimens every year, and a breakdown in the ecosystems where they live. About a million seahorses are caught each year globally for the curio trade. They are hung out alive in the sun to dry and then made into ornaments and tourist souvenirs. Although these natural items are frequently advertised as being “sustainable,”  this is seldom — if ever — true. Seahorses and other sea creatures undergo similar fishing and drying practices as the destructive shark fin trade.

Habitat Degradation.

Lined seahorses are threatened by habitat degradation from pollution, coastal development, and excess sedimentation and eutrophication. Loss of salt marsh and submerged aquatic vegetation beds from habitat degradation is also a threat, as well as invasive species (like Green Crabs and Asian Shore Crabs) and climate change that are creating more intense storms and rough surf for seahorses to swim.

Additionally, bottom trawling from commercial fishing activity can cause the destruction of coastal features, like sea grass beds and reefs, which can lead to seahorse habitat degradation.