Researchers from Project Seahorse, a marine conservation team based at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the University of British Columbia (UBC), have identified and reviewed new findings related to 35 of the 46 seahorse species found around the globe, all of them posted by citizen scientists using the team’s iSeahorse program.
The program allows members of the public and non-professional or amateur researchers to provide information about their sightings of seahorses in the wild. Using the website, they provide information about which species of seahorse, when and where in the world they saw it, its habitat, and its depth. They are also asked to provide photographic evidence if they are able.
Undertaking an analysis of 7,794 validated iSeahorse observations from 96 countries and across 35 seahorse species, posted from October 2013 to April 2022, researchers were impressed by the information they gained and its effect on knowledge about seahorses.
“The new findings will enhance global conservation assessments of the species in the world’s definitive IUCN Red List of Threatened Species,” said Elsa Camins Martinez, then an MSc student at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and first author of the paper.
Camins pointed to contributed observations on Coleman’s pygmy seahorse (Hippocampus colemani), which indicated that its geographic range is thousands of square kilometres larger, its habitat more diverse, and its depth range shallower than previously known. Many of the observations of Hippocampus satomiae were also outside the range reported in the IUCN Red List, suggesting that their range is considerably larger than previously understood.
“Comparing habitat types reported in iSeahorse with those in the IUCN Red List assessment for each species, we found new habitats for 80 percent of species,” said Dr. Amanda Vincent, UBC professor, co-founder and Director of Project Seahorse, as well as senior author on the research. “We found new habitats for Hippocampus comes, Hippocampus histrix, H. kuda, Hippocampus kelloggi, and Hippocampus spinossisimus, each with five to six new habitats.”
More information: Elsa Camins et al, Advances in life‐history knowledge for 35 seahorse species from community science, Journal of Fish Biology (2024). DOI: 10.1111/jfb.15699
Journal information: Journal of Fish Biology
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