Millions of seahorses vanish into the illegal wildlife trade each year

Euronews

3 days ago

Close to five million smuggled seahorses, worth an estimated €18.5 million, were seized over the past decade. It is a staggering number that researchers say still underrepresents the true scale of the illegal trade.
A new study published in Conservation Biology examined global wildlife seizure data from 2010 to 2021 and discovered that seahorses – either dead and dried or alive – were most often found hidden in luggage or shipped by sea cargo across 62 countries. The majority were bound for traditional medicine markets in Asia.
But those aren't the only markets anymore. The researchers discovered that Europe and Latin America are increasingly showing up in trafficking routes, too.
'The nearly 300 seizures we analysed were based only on online records and voluntary disclosures including government notices and news stories,' says Dr Sarah Foster, a research associate at the University of British Columbia's Project Seahorse and the study's lead author.
'What we're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg.'
Seahorses have long been prized in traditional medicine, especially in China and Hong Kong, where they're dried, ground into powder and used in treatments for ailments ranging from asthma to impotence. They're also traded as dried souvenirs or live animals for aquariums.
Demand for them has proven difficult to regulate.
International trade in seahorses is legal under the CITES treaty – an agreement recognised by 184 countries, including the whole of the EU. But it is only allowed if permits prove that exporting them won't harm wild populations.
In practice, those permits are hard to secure. That's pushed the trade underground, where traffickers exploit weak enforcement and shifting trade routes, according to the researchers.
'The trade routes appear to be diversifying, and so must enforcement efforts,' says Syd Ascione, a research biologist at Project Seahorse.
Seahorses are often seized alongside other trafficked items like pangolin scales and elephant ivory. It shows how deeply marine species are entangled in the global wildlife crime economy – a trade worth up to €20 billion annually, according to Interpol.
In February, a global wildlife traffickingcrackdown saw 20,000 live animals seized, from tiger cubs to songbirds. In Europe, smugglers have previously been caught transporting reptiles under their clothes. And in April, two Belgian teenagers found trafficking 5,000 ants were fined €6,775 or given the option of serving 12 months in prison by a court in Kenya for violating wildlife conservation laws.
A 2024 UN report found that more than4,000 species are affected by wildlife trafficking, driving some rare species to extinction.
Still, marine species tend to receive less attention – and less protection – than their more charismatic land-dwelling counterparts, according to the UN. But their quiet disappearance affects everything from coral habitats to the livelihoods of coastal communities that depend on the sea for food or commerce.
Controlling the trade has also proven difficult. They can be a valuable income source for fishers, Foster says, and there are gaps in enforcement.
The study found recorded values for seized seahorses in only 34 cases, but was able to estimate an average price of about €4.50 per animal – a low number but one that adds up quickly when trafficked in bulk.
While airports are common seizure points for trafficked seahorses, the largest volumes are found in sea cargo, a frequently overlooked transport method.
Of the 300 cases the group examined, only seven per cent included information about legal penalties. That raises questions about how often traffickers are prosecuted and whether current penalties are enough to slow their trade.
'All countries must step up with strong deterrents – good detective work, determined enforcement and meaningful penalties,' says Dr Teale Phelps Bondaroff of OceansAsia, the study's senior author.
At the same time, Foster adds, there's a need to support sustainable alternatives. Those efforts start with bringing the legal seahorse trade into the light to protect their populations, perhaps providing a blueprint for better marine conservation everywhere.
'When we ask [traditional medicine traders in Hong Kong], 'How long do you want seahorses around?', they say 'Forever, they're really important!'' she says. 'And we agree.'
From the vivid red of a parrot's feather to the dreamy blues and purples of Indigo plants, nature is a riot of colour. It has a spectrum to satisfy even the most fashion-forward of humans, so what if there were a way to naturally copy all of these hues?
That's precisely what UK-based company Colorifix is working on: a fabric-dyeing process that uses the DNA codes for colours found in nature and teaches microbes to recreate them.
Founders Orr Yarkoni and Jim Ajioka were motivated by a research trip to Nepal in 2013, where they saw the toxic impact of chemically synthesised dyes on Kathmandu's rivers.
A decade later, Colorfix won recognition as a 2023 finalist for The Earthshot Prize - the global environmental award created by Britain's Prince William.
We caught up with the company to find out more about the waste-cutting solution and what they've achieved since stepping into the global spotlight.
Before the 19th century, fabric dyes were derived from natural plants and crops, and colourful clothing was considered a luxury. Colorifix is 'bringing the fashion industry back to its roots', in the words of CEO Yarkoni - but with a 21st century set of tools to unlock new pigments.
It begins by identifying an interesting colour created naturally by an animal, plant or microbe. By searching public databases, scientists find the 'instructions' for making that colour in the organism's DNA code.
They then insert that code into bioengineered microbes like yeast, which are fed with sugar and nitrogen in bioreactors, similar to the way beer is brewed. Over time, these 'microscopic colour factories' can create hundreds to thousands of litres of dye.
Finally, the contents of the fermentor are pumped into standard dye machines along with the yarn, fabric, or garment to be dyed.
'Support from The Earthshot Prize not only validates the impact of our solution but also connects us with the network needed for this crucial next phase,' says Andreas Andren, head of business development at Colorifix.
Finalists - there are 15 each year, across five categories - join the Prize's 12-month accelerator programme, which includes connections to investors and help to overcome hurdles.
'Biotech is great, but overall expensive to run and scale,' explains Andren. 'Part of the innovation we had to put into play was hardware to make biotechnology scaling competitive with commodity chemical manufacturing.
'Having to solve that problem on top of developing our core technology - the actual dyeing - was definitely the biggest challenge.'
Colorfix's solution makes for an interesting intellectual property (IP) case. Patenting organisms that have been recreated using DNA technology is tricky, so the company has instead patented its process of producing, depositing and fixing dye on fabric.
'To reap all the benefits of our technology, such as flexibility and cost parity, a dye house will need to install our proprietary bioreactors on-site,' Andren says.
Is the company coming up against incumbents in the industry? 'We are getting more attention from synthetic chemical manufacturers,' he says.
'Some good, some not so good; but the fact that they are starting to pay attention is definitely a sign we are on the right track.'
Colorifix has operational capacity in Europe and South America - spread out across several manufacturers - and is aiming to be operational in South Asia within a year.
It has partnered with fashion brands like Pangaia and Vollebak to bring products dyed with its technology to market and start increasing demand for sustainable dyes throughout the supply chain.
There are other 'big names in the pipeline,' says Andren - but the company is keeping its cards close to its chest for now. The same goes for the new colours it is cooking up.
However, he reveals, they successfully dyed greens and oranges during the first part of the year. And the team are extending their application to new materials, including Spiber, made of spider silk protein, and Circulose, an alternative cellulose pulp.
New colours will join Colorifix's primary palette of three pigments: one detected in Indigo plants; another, Blushing Rose, made by underwater bacteria; and a third bacteria-born pigment found in soil and deep-sea sediments, named Sunlit Sand.
Colouring our clothes with these natural dyes would represent huge progress for an industry that is currently polluting and colouring nature - like Tanzania's Msimbazi River - with chemicals.
Colorifix's natural dyes cut chemical pollution by 80 per cent and, when applied to fabrics, they require far fewer rinses than synthetic dyes, ultimately saving vast quantities of water.