Seahorses are among the most unusual fish in the world - slowly swimming, monogamous, with male pregnancy - yet they are traded by the tens of millions annually for traditional medicine and the aquarium trade.
Seahorses in trade face significant welfare challenges at every stage. Dried seahorse trade involves live collection followed by desiccation - a particularly distressing way to die. Seahorses collected for the aquarium trade have very high mortality rates in transit due to their susceptibility to stress, disease, and handling. In aquariums, their specialized diet requirements (live brine shrimp, amphipods) are challenging for non-specialist keepers, causing starvation in many captive individuals. The destruction of seagrass meadows and coral reefs removes not just food sources but the anchor points seahorses depend on for rest and camouflage, creating chronic environmental stress in wild populations.