International Aquarium Congress | Day 4
海马是我们可以保存在家庭水族馆中的最细腻的生物之一。在野外,他们的人口和栖息地同样脆弱。
PhD student, Xiong Zhang gave a presentation to Congress delegates about his research to identify and conserve seahorses, in particular throughout China. From his work on Project Seahorse, Zhang has developed the app iSeahorses which has an informative guide to identifying seahorses, and a crowdsources observation component to record seahorse sightings in the wild.
What we know about seahorses in China
“Seahorses are adorable but also important,” said Zhang. “Seahorses can become ambassadors for the sea and help mobilize conservation. Protecting seahorses means protecting many important ocean habitats.”
Seahorses are naturally vulnerable and are frequently caught as bycatch in shrimp trawlers. In the wild seahorses have a low awareness of threats and很容易被这些金融中间人hing nets.
Sadly tens of million of seahorses are caught every year by shrimp trawlers. At this time,China is the world largest importer and consumer of dried seahorses and also has one of the largest shrimp fisheries. Zhang works in Chinaby与当地渔业交谈along Chinas coast and communicating with local institutions about the conservation of seahorses and their habitats.
There are five species of seahorse found in China and during his study, only one物种三个斑点海马(Hippocampus trimaculatus)was commonly sighted in fisheries.当前的年度收获是中国的6000万个人,来自虾渔业的99%,张还发现,从2005年至2014年,S中国的Eahorse Catch下降了近90%。
What we can do collectively is iSeahorse
iSeahorse came from a desire to learn more about seahorses habitats in the wild and provide a free guide for their identification. iSeahorse is a citizen science platform which so far has collected 2044 sightings of 38 species in the wild.
即使您不去天然海马栖息地旅行,我们也发现海马指南对50种海马的图片和描述非常有用。上传照片并添加自己的观察值很简单,这可以帮助科学家在野外保护这些物种。
How you can help
张和他的团队进行宣传为了说服人们停止食用海马和虾,而Seahorse和Iseeahorse小组正在寻找中国的合作伙伴在教育设施或希望参与的公共水族馆中。