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Project seahorse

Project Seahorse was co-founded by ZSL in 1996 in response to the destructive, global seahorse fishery.

Seahorse
© ZSL ZSL, as a partner of Project Seahorse, has helped establish fifteen no-take Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in conjunction with local communities and government in the Danajon Bank reef complex of northern Bohol, Philippines.

MPAs are created as a conservation and fisheries management tool to prevent the over exploitation of fish and to encourage ecosystem protection or recovery. Within an MPA, all fishing and detrimental practices are halted, allowing an increase in the number of species and the size of individuals present. As a consequence, one of the expectations of no-take MPAs is that fish populations from these reserves can increase and spill over or disperse from the reserve, thus stocking areas outside.

It has grown into an international, multidisciplinary project tackling the diverse issues affecting seahorses, and is based at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and in the Philippines.

Within this partnership, ZSL has focused on habitat protection and rehabilitation, seahorse research and breeding, socio-economic research, livelihood development, and sustainable fisheries.

Community led

Over 300 hectares of coral reef and seagrass habitats have been protected thus far. As capacity within the community organisations increases, the project’s role has shifted from direct involvement in MPA establishment to indirect support. For biological and social research, and assisting the communities to engage with the municipal and provincial governments in new MPA establishment. The project has also established a long-term community-based monitoring programme to measure MPA effectiveness with biological and social indicators. Training is provided to fishers and Local Government Unit staff in MPA monitoring and workshops held to feedback results of research.

Project Seahorse biologists and social scientists have been working with local communities for the sustainable management of these resources through the establishment of MPAs. This is achieved through engaging communities’ interest, assessing the biological resources, identifying suitable MPA locations and legally establishing them.

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