Acronym HIPPOSAFE
Category
Fisheries
Title From abundance to disappearance: Identifying causes for Hippocampus guttulatus population decrease in the Ria Programme Nat. Programme (supported by ESIF)
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National-European Coordinator Jorge Afonso Martins da Palma Coordinator email jpalma@ualg.pt
Coordinator institution
CCMAR - Centre for Marine Sciences (Portugal)
Institutions involved
NA
Start year 2012 End year 2014 Funding (€) € 124,710 Website NA Summary Seahorses (Syngnathidae) are emblematic and threatened fish with remarkable morphology and biology, including male pregnancy. Worldwide, seahorse populations are threatened due to degradation of their habitats, incidental capture in fishing gear (by-catch), and over-exploitation for use in aquarium trade, curiosities and traditional medicines. Seahorses are particularly vulnerable to population decline because of their distinctive life history, behaviour and ecology: they provide lengthy and vital parental care for small broods, exhibit low mobility and site-fidelity. In addition, seahorses inhabit shallow, coastal areas worldwide, where anthropogenic disturbances tend to be most frequent and severe. Hippocampus guttulatus is one of the two species that live in the Northeast Atlantic, and along with H. hippocampus both inhabit the Ria Formosa lagoon (Southern Portugal), where significant populations were documented. However, ongoing surveys done by "Project Seahorse" researchers, in collaboration with our team members, provided important data to assess the actual status of seahorse populations as we found a dramatic decrease of 94%. The Ria Formosa lagoon is highly productive and sustains a great variety of commercial species that are heavily exploited. The use of fishing gears have a direct (by-catch) and indirect (habitat degradation) impact on both seahorse species. South Portugal is a renowned touristic area and the Ria Formosa is a reference place for aquatic sports and boat traffic, activities which increase environmental disturbance and therefore a stressful factor for seahorse species. Altogether, these disturbances may be responsible for the drastic decline in seahorse numbers in previous surveyed sites by other researchers. Therefore, the main goal of this project is to obtain information to answer the question: What is causing the seahorse populations dramatic decline in the Ria Formosa lagoon? Since a proper knowledge of a wide array of life-history parameters is a major asset in evaluating long term persistence and recovery of depleted populations, several other questions must first be addressed: (1) What are the seahorse preferences for habitat choice?; (2) Is the underwater anthropogenic noise a source of acoustic stress to wild populations of H. guttulatus?; (3) Would it be beneficial to use artificial holdfast units, in order to rehabilitate degraded habitats?; (4) Is there a significant genetic diversity/identity in the H. guttulatus populations within the Ria Formosa lagoon? Understanding seahorse life history becomes particularly important now that the entire genus Hippocampus has been added to Appendix II of CITES. Without knowledge of their life-history and population parameters, it will be difficult to develop management strategies to ensure their population persistence in the wild. Management guidelines and initiatives are required to ensure the persistence of seahorse populations, with each venture relying on an understanding of seahorse biology and ecology. Moreover, additional information is required regarding seahorse habitat preference to ensure that focal sites with similar characteristics are protected. Most of the experimental design of this project is conceived to gather necessary information to answer the above stated questions, but, as it is necessary to give more than answers, we propose new and helpful tools to manage the recovery of these seahorse populations: broader survey areas in order to complement seahorse population information; pinpointing stressful factors that may lead to seahorse population dynamics menace; use of artificial structures able to attract seahorses that do not compromise the habitat integrity and a genetic survey will provide information for proper recommendations to local and national entities involved in the conservation of the seahorse populations in the Ria Formosa (e.g.. Parque Natural da Ria Formosa, ICNB). The researchers of the Hydroecology and Fisheries Biology group possess a scientific background both in fish ecology and aquaculture and genetic analysis. Therefore, in order to ensure the persistence of seahorse populations worldwide, we need to recreate the past, assess the present and plan for the future. The available data on the Ria Formosa seahorse populations prior to the start of this project was still scarce and therefore it was necessary to be extending it in order to have a better understanding of these species habitat preference, ecological/trophic role within this sensitive ecosystem and also the environment problems that affect them. The research plan is divided in five work tasks each one designed with the specific purpose to provide intermediate answers which integrated will allow understanding more of the role of these species in the ecosystem and of some of the problems that affect them, so tools can be created for their conservation and management.
Keywords
Habitat enhancement;
Impacts;
Artificial reef;
Anthropic activity;
Fish habitat;
Fish;
Genetic;
Marine Region
38
Portuguese Waters (27.IXa,27.IXb)
2
Canarias and Madeira Islands (34.1.2)
2
Marine Region Map
