Evaluation of environmental stressors for a population of the long-snouted seahorse Hippocampus guttulatus through an innovative Citizen Science approach
Abstract
In this paper we describe the sudden decrease of a Hippocampus guttulatus population in the Mar Piccolo di Taranto (MPT) (South-east Italy) under the combined effect of fishing activities and illegal trade. Until recently, the Mar Piccolo of Taranto has hosted one of the most interesting and large longsnouted seahorse population of the Mediterranean sea. However, as of 2016, the density of H. guttulatus population has shown a sudden and dramatic decrease. Disclosure and report of an online traffic of seahorses from Italy to China (https://veraleaks.org) occurred in February 2019 prompted us to carry out interviews with the main stakeholders operating in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the extent of this illegal trade and the potential effects on the seahorses population.
Event details
- Event
- MetroSea 2020
- Technical Committee
- TC19
- info@metrosea.org
- Place
- Naples, ITALY
- Time
- 5 October 2020 - 7 October 2020
- Website
- http://www.metrosea.org
- Proceedings
- https://www.imeko.org/publications/tc19-Metrosea-2020