Thailand suspends seahorse trade amid conservation concerns

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Thailand suspends seahorse trade amid conservation concerns

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA

 

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Seahorses, traded by the millions annually as an ingredient in traditional medicine in parts of Asia, are getting a reprieve from Thailand, the world's biggest exporter of the animal.

 

A marine biologist who works closely with Thailand on seahorse conservation welcomed the government's decision to suspend seahorse trade because of concern about threats to its wild population.

 

"It's a way station to getting serious management in place," Amanda Vincent of The University of British Columbia said Thursday. Vincent is director of Project Seahorse, a marine conservation group whose partner is the Zoological Society of London.

 

The Thailand decision was announced at a meeting in South Africa of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. The U.N. meeting, which regulates trade in more than 35,000 species of animals and plants, ends Oct. 5.

 

Seahorses are mainly used in dried form for traditional medicine in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. They are also popular as curios, and there is a trade in live seahorses for display in home aquariums, including in Europe and North America.

 

CITES requires some controls on trade in the dozens of types of seahorse, designed to ensure the survival of the species.

 

But Thailand, responsible for three-quarters of the world's documented exports of seahorses, could not meet its obligations and stopped issuing export permits at the beginning of the year, according to Vincent.

 

Thailand's goal, she said, is to make seahorse exports "sustainable."

 

CITES has suspended the seahorse trade with three other big exporters — Vietnam, Senegal and Guinea — after they failed to meet requirements for the trade in the animal, Vincent said.

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Follow Christopher Torchia on Twitter at www.twitter.com/torchiachris

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-09-30

[jamesbrock]

Don't you mean: "Thailand suspends seahorse trade because it could not meet its obligations regarding conservation concerns"?

 

Again, making the junta's decision appear altruistic rather than a requirement to avoid trade sanctions.

[ratcatcher]

Very pretty creatures, once again, China is the leading market for their use as a "medicinal benefit".

https://www.google.co.th/search?q=seahorse&biw=1366&bih=638&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjRmOvH_rXPAhULo5QKHV6BCwkQ_AUIBigB

[ourmanflint]

It is about time the UN imposed an embargo on any animals being sent to China to be used as medicine. The whole thing is completely barbaric nonsense. Let them stick to herbs and trees.

[Kasset Tak]

UN and CITES a bunch of rich hypocrites!

 

Thailand and Laos has had domesticated elephants for centuries and therefore has a lot of old ivory and also new from dead domesticated elephants but now that can't be sold because of CITES.

In Africa there are big problems about poaching as the tusks of an elephant can feed a family for over a year so when CITES stopped the sales the people walked hungry. The wildlife rangers who are working with protecting these animals are under payed and under armed but instead of selling the confiscated ivory to make money for their salaries new arms and equipment it's just burned. That means that the elephants died for nothing, when they instead could have been used to fight for the future of their species. All thanks to CITES that is governed by wealthy countries that don't give a <deleted> about the poor people in developing countries.

 

The hunt for tuna fish is killing lots of dolphins and it was a lot of reports about this already in the 80's but as Americans like to eat tuna there is not much happening about that.

 

Farming salmon leads to over fishing of other species used for feed but that is no big problem as Norway and UK are the lead countries on the salmon export.

 

 

 

[seahorse]

Hey Thailand, leave those seahorses alone.

[elgordo38]

Did you ever try to lasso and shoe one of these suckers

[Brer Fox]

The next edict along with Section 44 to expect from the PM will be that seahorses in captivity in tanks (farmed) and aquariums will have to be DNA tested, tagged and registered with the government. Just like he has done for the domesticated elephants.

This will be needed to satisfy the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), otherwise know as WWLP (Worldwide Wildlife Police) so that Thailand is not threatened with sanctions.