10-year-old Abbiegail has launched a blog about the curio trade on several facebook pages to explain to others about the horrendous trade in curios from seaside shops.
It is fantastic to see another generation taking on this important issue; it is their future after all !!
Her blog can be found at:
http://aschoolfreelife.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/stop-seahorse-abuse.html
A few days ago a friendly local fisherman was fishing for Sand Eels not far from Fowey and when pulled in the net and this beautiful juvenile female Spiny Seahorse (Hippocampus guttulatus) was in the net with them. She was very dazed and so the fisherman contacted Phil Croxton owner of the Fowey Aquarium who took her in and looked after her over night.
In the close up picture of her is a Dog Fish Egg case and it shows she was about two and a half to three inches from the top …of the head to the end of the tail.
Phil then phoned us at The Seahorse Trust to report the sighting for inclusion on the National Seahorse Database (we hold all British Seahorse sightings since 1821) which is part of the British Seahorse Survey that we run and to get advice as to what to do. In conversation we advised once she was in good health, had a good feed and was rested to return her to the same spot she was fished from and release her. (we are keeping the exact location secret for obvious reasons)
Seahorse here in the UK are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981 as amended) and the act allows for tired animals to be held in captivity and to be released at the earliest opportunity, so Phil, the fisherman and the team did the exactly right thing and they should be commended for their quick thinking actions which undoubtedly saved the young seahorse
They released her yesterday by kayaking out and gently putting her over the side into the same spot she came from.
Pictures kindly from Ian McCarthy
Great news, we have had reports coming in of shops selling curios and so we are working behind the scenes, trying to sort this out.
Interestingly Lucy one of our volunteers kindly reported stalls selling curios in Bulgaria, which has been very useful. We might not be able to do anything about these ones in other countries yet but please send them in any way as they will help us shape the campaign in the future.
I have attached two pictures Lucy took of Seahorses and a Porcupine Puffer which were being sold. It has to stop and only you can do this.
If you see marine and other curios for sale please report them to us. If can give the address and details and if you have pictures that would be great but please make sure this is peacefully done.
Send your information to Illegaltrade@localhost
Porcupine Pufferfish for sale in Bulgaria
Seahorses for sale in Bulgaria
Interesting how the boating folk argues about the right to use ‘their moorings’ at Studland but if they could see the state of the links that they are attaching these very expensive boats too, I don’t think they would. I know I certainly would not tie up a rowing boat let alone a nice yacht to some of these moorings.
Another good reason why the Environmentally friendly moorings are a good idea, as they would be insured, maintained and most importantly safe.
Note the typical bottle dropped over the side of a boat, this one full of rubbish, a common practice, luckily only a small handful of boat people do this and it is frowned upon but most right-thinking boat owners.
We have had an amazing donation from our friends at Wildlife World http://www.wildlifeworld.co.uk/ who have kindly sent us £204 from the sale of some of their products. Wildlife World makes and supplies some incredible wildlife products such as nest boxes, feeders Etc. and emphasize education and quality as the basis for their designs. Occasionally they sell off seconds and kindly donate the money to charities such as ours. I would just like to say a massive thank you to Norman and the team for their kindness.
Fisherman Michael Bailey has found another large seahorse in Poole Harbour. A few years ago Michael found a very large male Spiny Seahorse that measured almost 30 cm from the top of the head to the end of the tail.
A few days ago he found another one and this male was very heavily pregnant. Michael said that he found 3 this year but numbers are dropping as he usually found so much more.
The Seahorse Trust has worked closely with Michael for several years and he very kindly took us out to look for seahorses in Poole Harbour a few years ago, on that dive we found 3, all Spiny Seahorses.
Poole Harbour has both species resident in it and it is thought that they are there permanently and do not migrate to deeper water because of the sheltered nature of the harbour.
kealan and the team at Save Our Seahorses in Dublin Ireland have made a very generous donation of £355 through the Go Fund Me campaign.
Kealan and the team have been long term partners of The Seahorses Trust and they are working hard on research into captive breeding for conservation and understanding the Traditional Medicine Trade.
It was Kealans work that exposed the numbers of seahorses being used in the traditional medicine trade as much higher than the offical figures, he discovered it is nearer 150 million per annum which could lead to seahorses being functionally extinct in 20 to 30 years.
The Care 2 petition to DEFRA to get them to change their mind over making Studland Bay a Marine Conservation Zone ended yesterday with a final figure of 153,585 from 76 different countries which is staggering.
The boat owners who are against this reacted by saying ‘foreigners’ should not have a say on English conservation which is quite strange as we are always telling other countries to protect their wildlife.
The UK is a signatory to the IUCN which means it is legally bound to enforce wildlife law and to set up Marine Conservation Zones for vulnerable species and habitats and so it is failing in its statutory duty in protecting both species and habitat.
Thank you to everyone who signed the petition and we have now submitted a large amount of data and information to the consultation process and we have very high hopes that Studland Bay will be included in the next tranche of MCZ’s in 2016.
THANK YOU
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