Originally published 2019-10-17.
In late September 2019 the Peruvian Navy stopped a small fishing boat called the Adonay about 200 miles off the port of Callao and found a cargo officials described as the largest seahorse seizure in the country's history: 55 boxes of dried seahorses, more than a tonne in total, which Peru's Ministry of Production counted as 12.3 million animals worth around US$6 million on the export market. Catching, transporting and selling seahorses has been illegal in Peru since 2004, and the haul was almost certainly bound for traditional medicine markets in Asia.
Below is what happened, what the numbers mean, and why a small, odd-looking fish ends up at the centre of a multimillion-dollar smuggling trade.
How the Adonay was stopped
According to the Lima newspaper El Comercio, the patrol ship B.A.P. Río Cañete intercepted the Adonay 197 miles west of Callao, Peru's main port next to Lima, after authorities had tracked it for several days. The operation brought together the Ministry of Production (known as Produce), the coast guard authority DICAPI, the Navy and the National Police.
On board were four crew members, three Peruvians and one Venezuelan. Peruvian reports said those charged could face three to five years in prison plus fines, through both a criminal case and an administrative sanctions procedure. The boat was escorted to the naval base at Callao.
The species seized was the Pacific seahorse, Hippocampus ingens, the largest seahorse of the eastern Pacific. Rather than destroy the cargo, the authorities said it would be donated to research centres and universities, as Peruvian fisheries rules allow.
A closer look at the numbers
Big seizures generate big headlines, and the figures deserve a moment of care. Weight can be measured directly; the number of animals and their market value are estimates produced by the authorities.
Here the count and the weight do not sit comfortably together. Spread over about a tonne, 12.3 million seahorses would weigh less than a tenth of a gram each, while an adult Pacific seahorse usually measures 12 to 19 centimetres. Either most of the animals were very small juveniles, or the headline number was an overestimate. Whatever the exact count, the seizure was enormous by any measure: Mexico and Peru, the two biggest exporters of this species, have been reported to sell around a dry tonne a year between them.
Nor was it the first such case. In June 2016 officers at Callao found about 8 million dried seahorses, worth nearly $4 million, in the hold of a Chinese-flagged ship heading for Asia, and its captain was arrested.
Why seahorses are traded at all
Dried seahorses are a long-standing ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, where they are used in remedies sold for many complaints, including as a supposed tonic for male sexual function. That reputation is why environmental groups often describe the trade as a "natural Viagra" market.
Used as a natural Viagra in Chinese medicine, #seahorse numbers are declining https://t.co/SHy7w7vA63 pic.twitter.com/oV3lhB1KW7
— Environmental Investigation Agency (@EIA_News) June 8, 2019
There is no good scientific evidence that seahorse products work for impotence or any other condition. Anyone with a health concern should talk to a doctor rather than rely on animal-based remedies.
Demand is concentrated in China, Hong Kong and parts of Southeast Asia, where dried seahorses are sold whole in medicine shops or ground into powders and pills. Estimates of the global take vary widely, from about 20 million seahorses a year traded for medicine to research figures from Project Seahorse of some 70 million caught annually by fishers in at least 80 countries. Dried seahorses can sell for several hundred to a few thousand US dollars per kilogram, a strong temptation for low-income fishing crews.
How the law protects seahorses
Peru banned the extraction, transport and sale of seahorses in 2004 under a ministerial resolution, after overfishing driven largely by export demand. The same year, the whole seahorse genus, Hippocampus, came under Appendix II of CITES, the international treaty on trade in endangered species. Appendix II does not ban trade outright; it requires exporting countries to show that shipments are legal and will not harm wild populations.
In practice, enforcement is patchy. CITES has flagged the Pacific seahorse as one of the species under the greatest pressure from unsustainable harvest and international trade, and confiscation records suggest that illegal trade carried on after the listing. The IUCN Red List classes Hippocampus ingens as Vulnerable.
A common myth is that a seizure like this ends the problem. In reality, a large share of seahorses reach the market not from targeted fishing but as bycatch, caught accidentally in non-selective gear such as trawls. A 2022 assessment led by Project Seahorse estimated that at least 17.3 million Pacific seahorses were caught along Peru's coast that year, with at least 4.7 million entering illegal trade.
Why losing seahorses matters
Seahorses are unusual fish. They swim slowly, live in small home ranges in seagrass, mangroves, reefs and soft seabeds, and the males carry the eggs in a brood pouch until the young are born. Scientists recognise around 47 species worldwide.
Those same traits make them easy to overharvest. Seahorses have limited ability to disperse, relatively few young survive, and many populations have low genetic diversity, so a heavily fished area can take a long time to recover. The fishing methods that catch them by accident, especially bottom trawling, also damage the seabed habitats that many other species depend on.
Researchers working in Peru argue that lasting solutions need fishers on board: changes to fishing gear, better monitoring of landings, and alternative income so that selling bycatch to smugglers is no longer worth the risk.
What you can do
- Do not buy dried seahorses as souvenirs, curios or remedies, even where they are sold openly.
- Check seafood choices. Shrimp from non-selective trawl fisheries is a major source of seahorse bycatch; certified or trap-caught options are better.
- Support citizen science. Divers and snorkellers can log seahorse sightings with the iSeahorse project run by Project Seahorse.
- Report suspected wildlife trafficking to local authorities or customs.
Sources: El Comercio, 1 October 2019; AP via FOX6, 4 October 2019; Phys.org: Peru seizes 8 mn seahorses (2016); Project Seahorse: Turning seahorse research into action in Peru; Wikipedia: Pacific seahorse; Wikipedia: Seahorse; Environmental Investigation Agency.
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