Seahorse Welfare in the Pet and Traditional Medicine Trade

Seahorses are traded for traditional medicine and the aquarium trade in enormous numbers, with high mortality at every stage of the supply chain causing immense welfare harm.

Key Facts

An estimated 20-25 million seahorses are consumed annually in traditional medicine
Seahorses dried alive for medicine experience prolonged heat stress before death
Aquarium trade seahorses have extremely high mortality from transport and inappropriate captive conditions
Project Seahorse estimates global seahorse populations have declined 30-50% over 10 years
Most seahorse species are CITES Appendix II listed but trade continues largely unregulated

Welfare Considerations

Drying seahorses alive causes severe heat and desiccation stress over hours before death — the welfare harm in traditional medicine processing is extreme and at enormous scale. Aquarium seahorses require specialised live food, stable water parameters and conspecific social contact that most aquarists cannot provide, resulting in rapid mortality from starvation and disease. The combined demand from traditional medicine and the aquarium trade is driving population collapse across most species.

What You Can Do

Refuse traditional medicine products containing dried seahorses
Do not purchase seahorses for the aquarium trade unless from a certified captive-bred source
Support Project Seahorse conservation monitoring and community fisheries management
Advocate for stronger CITES Appendix I protection for the most endangered seahorse species