China's appetite for dried seahorses - the end for the sea animal? | Global Ideas | '
On a narrow stretch of golden sandy beach on the southern tip of Djiffer, a small but bustling fishing village on the Senegalese coast, teeming with marine life.
Every day in the late afternoon colorfully painted pirogues arrive. The fishermen with their simple wooden boats pour their catch on the beach, which they have fished out of the tropical waters in the surrounding Sine Saloum region.
A large number of traders are fighting for the best selection of the day: barracudas, stingrays, oysters, sea cucumbers and the coveted captain fish. The smallest – and perhaps most valuable – part of the catch are the seahorses.
"Prices have risen very fast," says Youssef, a local fishmonger who traditionally acts as a broker between fishermen and buyers.
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Flourishing trade
Although there is no exact information for Senegal, the number of traded seahorses in West Africa has risen dramatically in recent years. 600,000 animals are said to have been exported in 2018, according to the marine conservation organization Project Seahorse.
"There are basically two ways of trafficking, and both are related to the sale of fish and seafood to Asia, especially China," says Andres Cisneros. In 2015, the scientist ran field research for the NGO Senegal.
When fishermen bring their catch ashore in the coastal town of Djiffer, there is a scramble for the best pieces
On the one hand there are commercial trawlers fishing along the seabed and delivering their catch in the Senegalese capital Dakar. The Asian ship crews eventually began to keep the trapped seahorses to sell them dried at home, says Cisneros.
"Shortly thereafter, the local, Senegalese and other West African crews did the same, selling the seahorses in Dakar harbor to teammates or buyers for onward transport to China," Cisneros told ‘.
"In the meantime, traditional fishermen are also fishing for seahorses in their small boats throughout West Africa," he adds.
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Almost all West African seafood trade now travels through Dakar, the region's largest seafood port and trading center, explains Cisneros. Among the hotspots for poaching include the species-rich Saloum delta in Senegal, as well as the neighboring countries Gambia, Guinea and Guinea Bissau.
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Turnover of illegally traded wild animals and products made from them is more than 18 billion euros annually. Also the trade with seahorses belongs to it. According to the international police organization Interpol, poaching continues to increase and many species are on the brink of extinction.
China's appetite for seahorses
A report by the non-governmental organization Traffic, which records worldwide trade in wild animals and plants, concludes that between 2009 and 2017, 24.4% of ocean products confiscated in the aviation sector were seahorses. A single confiscated cargo can contain up to 20,000 seahorses, with a value of more than € 8.80 per animal.
"With the exception of three cases, all the illegal trade in marine products emanating from Africa (as analyzed in another part of the report) was destined for China and Vietnam," it says.
Scientists believe that the great demand from China is the reason for the increasing trade in seahorses and other endangered species. If one believes in traditional Chinese medicine, the animals should increase the potency and cure many diseases, such as asthma, insomnia or heart disease.
Seahorses are often dried, powdered and added to rice wine, tea or soups by consumers in China. The country has more than a billion inhabitants. If this nation has an appetite for a product, it has an immense impact – but the consequences sometimes go unnoticed.
"The illegal trade in seahorses in Senegal has been under the radar for many years," says Cecile Bloch, coordinator of the environmental activist network EAGLE in Senegal. It works with governments across Africa to uncover and investigate the illegal trade in animals.
Hundreds of thousands of tiny seahorses are exported annually from West Africa. The animals are threatened with extinction.
The West African seahorse (Hippocampus algiricus), which lives in the waters off the West African coast from Senegal to Angola, has been particularly neglected and threatened with extinction, adds Bloch.
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At the end of 2016, CITES, a multilateral agreement regulating the trade in wild animals and plants, completely banned trade with the West African Seahorse, as Senegal did not fulfill its obligations.
At the beginning of the same year, the international panel had restricted the export of seahorses to the species that were sustainably and legally procured. The reason: The number of seahorses had continued to decline. A quarter of the approximately 40 seahorse species are considered endangered or threatened with extinction. This includes the West African Art.
But this step has barely reduced demand.
If a ban brings nothing
A study by the University of British Columbia in Canada from the beginning of this year has shown that many countries – despite the ban – continue to trade extensively with seahorses. The researchers found that 95% of the dried seahorses sold in Hong Kong were allegedly from banned countries.
"The situation now is that seahorse trade is likely to continue as normal, but not legal, unmanaged and unmonitored, but that would be required under CITES regulations," says Sarah Foster. She is the lead author of the study, published in the journal Marine Policy.
"The political will does not seem to be there to stop trade and there certainly will not be the funding to fund the fight against wildlife trafficking," ‘ said.
Efforts to control international trade in seahorses from West Africa have so far been ineffective.
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Cecile Bloch also confirms that the Senegalese government has taken no significant action except occasionally having animals seized by Customs.
"The laws in Senegal are not a good protection for the seahorses," she says. "There are quotas that are not kept and controlled and much corruption."
Bloch says there is no legal way in Senegal to fight international trade. The Senegalese Ministry of Water, Forestry, Hunting and Soil Protection has not responded to a request from ‘ until the article was published.
The catching and selling of seahorses along the entire coast of Senegal is continuing apace.
In Djiffer, young fishermen carefully mend the holes in their fishing nets while drinking tea. There is little evidence of large-scale, industrial trade. However, under the cobalt blue water, directly behind them, the days of the seahorses could be numbered.
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