WHEN YOU
LOOK
Western Bluebird
The Destruction Of The Enchanting Seahorse
When you look at the big belly seahorse, you see inevitable charisma.
The big belly seahorse
https://www.georgiaaquarium.org/animal/big-bellied-seahorse/
Big belly seahorses originate in temperate and tropical regions including the Southwest Pacific around Australia and New Zealand. They are armed with bony plates that are fused together with a fleshy covering instead of scales like most fish. They have a curvy-like tail that allows them to hold onto seagrass and other objects. Seahorses rely on their dorsal fin beating at 30-70 times per second to propel it along, which makes them the slowest-moving of all fish species. Seahorses have many other wild and interesting facts such as being able to change color and the male gender birthing the offspring. Estimates suggest that only about 0.5% of the offspring will survive to become reproducing adults since the babies are left on their own immediately at birth.
These extraordinary species not only are praised because of their unique physique and existential appearance, but also for consumption due to their believed healing powers, including baldness, infertility, and arthritis. Seahorses hold charismatic characteristics to compel and attract the eyes of those who seek treatment. Seahorses are very profitable when they are sold for healing purposes after they’ve been desiccated. Because seahorses are so rare and exotic looking as an overall species, people hope that they can use them for a cure to treat their own rare diseases and illnesses that are not guaranteed to be curable.
Seahorse specimen in Orma J. Smith Museum of Natural History
Dried seahorses for profit
https://projectseahorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Hoang_seahorses_VN-e1623900703794.jpg
Trading and climate change go hand in hand when undergoing a potential extinction of these species. Seahorses contribute to climate change economically and culturally through a money-hungry society and profit in trades for medicine, creating a dangerous decline of seahorse species in our oceans. We can be blindsided by these said remedies and cures. These rare and unique species in our ecosystem are preyed upon in hopes of healing something that is not guaranteed. We are oftentimes compelled to buy certain items without realizing the risk to our ecosystem. But we should admire from afar and leave these rare and unique creatures alone.
In relation to climate change, seahorses are significant to our ecosystem in terms of being important predators on bottom-dwelling organisms and are, at the same time, preyed upon by invertebrates, fish, sea turtles, seabirds, and marine mammals. Therefore, removing them disrupts entire ecosystems. A famous and impactful quote from Paul Watson reads, “If the ocean dies, we die.”