FANTASTIC NEWS FROM EBAY

Bit by bit we stop the illegal trade

Here at The Seahorse Trust, we have an amazing team that work with us to try and stop the illegal sale of seahorses on online platforms. We have been successful with so many of them such as Etsy, Amazon and Alibaba to name a few.

Recently though, we have had a massive breakthrough with eBay, who have not only banned the sale of seahorses on their site worldwide, but they are actively working with us to stop anyone trying to sell seahorses on their platform.

By forming a strong link with their agent who is in charge of stopping illegal trades we have stopped live seahorses being sold, dried seahorses, seahorse keyrings, in fact anything that contains real seahorses have been banned. If somebody tries to sell seahorses, we contact the agent and they actively and very quickly remove the item, persistent offenders could be banned from the site.

Thank you so much eBay for your incredible work and especially to the agent who has made this happen.

I would also like to thank out incredible team who made this happen.

AMAZING NEWS FROM ETSY

Another door closes to the illegal trade

We are delighted to see that Etsy has updated its policy on Endangered or Threatened Wildlife Products, clarifying that it prohibits the sale of products made from seahorses, alongside many other endangered or threatened animals. While seahorses are protected under Appendix II of CITES (the species of which Etsy normally allows the sale of), given the serious risk of extinction faced by seahorses, we applaud their decision to include them on the list of banned species.

This highly encouraging news comes after a long campaign by The Seahorse Trust against the sale of real seahorses in jewellery, trinkets and traditional medicine through various online platforms. This included extensive efforts to engage with Etsy, as well as the launch of a petition to ‘Stop the sale of real seahorses on Etsy’ which gained over 55,000 signatories.

Neil Garrick-Maidment, Founder and Executive Director of The Seahorse Trust said, “With an estimated 150 million seahorses killed each year, and seahorses projected to be extinct within 20 years, it is critical that trade in these vulnerable animals is prevented from continuing to threaten their survival. As such, it is hugely encouraging to see many of the world’s largest online marketplaces and information platforms stepping up to shut down the trade. It is fantastic to see that Etsy, like eBay, Facebook, Amazon, Alibaba and others, has now made it clear that the sale of threatened seahorses through its platform is not acceptable. I am extremely grateful to everyone who has supported The Seahorse Trust in calling on Etsy and other companies to stop the sale of seahorses. Seahorse sales have now been banned across all of the major global online marketplaces, potentially saving huge numbers of animals each year.”

STOP THE CURIO TRADE CAMPAIGN FILM

Here at the trust we have put together a film about the curio trade and how it affects seahorses

This film has kindly been funded by the People’s Postcode Trust and we would like to say a massive thank you to them for doing this.

Please click on the picture below to link to the film and please share it far and wide, we need this message to get out there

To find out more about the work of the People’s Postcode trust then please click on their logo