Hippocampus reidi

– Data Deficient

Taxonomy

Kingdom:

ANIMALIA

Phylum:

CHORDATA

Class:

ACTINOPTERYGII

Order:

GASTEROSTEIFORMES

Family:

SYNGNATHIDAE

Scientific Name:

Hippocampus reidi

Species Authority:

Ginsburg, 1933

Common Name/s:

English

—

LONGSNOUT SEAHORSE, SLENDER SEAHORSE

Assessment Information

Red List Category & Criteria:

DD ver 3.1 (2001)

Year Assessed:

2003

Assessor/s:

Project Seahorse

Evaluator/s:

Marsden, A.D., Foster, S.J. & Vincent, A.C.J. (Syngnathid Red List Authority)

Justification:

There are no published data about population trends or total numbers of mature animals for this species. There is very little available information about its extent of occurrence or its area of occupancy. There have been no quantitative analyses examining the probability of extinction of this species. As a result, the assessors have insufficient data to properly assess the species against any of the IUCN criteria.

Hippocampus reidi previously was listed in 1996 as VU A2cd under the 1994 criteria. This assessment was based on suspected past declines in occupancy, occurrence and habitat, as well as on potential levels of exploitation. In reassessing the species under the new criteria and with greater taxonomic understanding we find that no appropriate data on biology and ecology, habitat, abundance or distribution are available for this species. Further research is needed. Assessed as Data Deficient under the new criteria.

History:

1996

Vulnerable (Baillie and Groombridge 1996)

Geographic Range

Countries:	Native: Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; Bermuda; Brazil; Colombia; Cuba; Grenada; Haiti; Jamaica; Panama; United States (Florida, North Carolina); Venezuela
FAO Marine Fishing Areas:	Native: Atlantic-southwest; Atlantic-western central

Population

Population:	During Project Seahorse trade surveys conducted between 2000–2001, fishers in Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama reported decreases in the catch of seahorses both in trawls (as bycatch) and by divers (J. Baum and I. Rosa, unpublished data), but the portion of these declines attributable to H. reidi is unknown.
Population Trend:

Habitat and Ecology

Habitat and Ecology:

Vari (1982) reports H. reidi at depths as great as 55 m. Small individuals tend to be found in shallower water than large animals (Dauwe 1993). It has been found on gorgonian corals, seagrass, mangroves and Sargassum (Lieske and Myers 1994). Hippocampus reidi are pair-bonded in the wild (B. Dauwe and M. Nijhoff in litt. to Lourie et al. 1999).

This species may be particularly susceptible to decline. All seahorse species have vital parental care, and many species studied to date have high site fidelity (Perante et al. 2002, Vincent et al., in review), highly structured social behaviour (Vincent and Sadler 1995), and relatively sparse distributions (Lourie et al. 1999). The importance of life history parameters in determining response to exploitation has been demonstrated for a number of species (Jennings et al. 1998).

System:

Marine

List of Habitats:

9.1	Marine Neritic - Pelagic

Threats

Threats:

Hippocampus reidi are collected and traded in the Americas as aquarium fishes, folk medicine, curiosities and for religious purposes (Rosa et al. 2002). The volume of this trade is unknown, as there is confusion between this species and a similar one, H. erectus. Without appropriate management this trade might represent a threat to the species. H. reidi are also taken as bycatch in shrimp trawl fisheries in the U.S., Mexico and Central America (Rosa et al. 2002). A study of bycatch in Florida found that most seahorses in bycatch were H. erectus; this suggests that H. reidi may not be as susceptible to trawling as H. erectus, possibly because of habitat differences.

Hippocampus reidi is considered threatened in the United States by the American Fisheries Society (AFS) (Musick et al. 2000). They cite the species' rarity and degradation of its seagrass habitats in South Florida as reasons for this listing. While this status may apply on a national level, we did not find information that would justify such a listing for the species as a whole.

List of Threats:

3.5.2

Harvesting (hunting/gathering) - Cultural/scientific/leisure activities - Sub-national/national trade (ongoing)

Conservation Actions

Conservation Actions:

The entire genus Hippocampus was listed in Appendix II of CITES in November 2002. Implementation of this listing will begin May 2004. The export of syngnathids from Mexico is effectively banned. Permits or licenses are required to export dried syngnathids from Honduras and Nicaragua, and to export live syngnathids from Panama, Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Further research on this species biology, ecology, habitat, abundance and distribution is needed.

List of Conservation Actions:

1.1.1	Policy-based actions - Management plans - Development (needed)
1.1.2	Policy-based actions - Management plans - Implementation (needed)
1.2.2.2	Policy-based actions - Legislation - Implementation - National level (in place)
1.3.1	Policy-based actions - Community management - Governance (needed)
1.3.2	Policy-based actions - Community management - Resource stewardship (needed)
1.3.3	Policy-based actions - Community management - Livelihood alternatives (needed)
2.2	Communication and Education - Awareness (needed)
2.3	Communication and Education - Capacity-building/Training (needed)
3.2	Research actions - Population numbers and range (needed)
3.3	Research actions - Biology and Ecology (in place, needed)
3.4	Research actions - Habitat status (needed)
3.5	Research actions - Threats (needed)
3.6	Research actions - Uses and harvest levels (needed)
3.8	Research actions - Conservation measures (needed)
3.9	Research actions - Trends/Monitoring (needed)
4.1	Habitat and site-based actions - Maintenance/Conservation (needed)
4.4.1	Habitat and site-based actions - Protected areas - Identification of new protected areas (needed)
5.3.1	Species-based actions - Sustainable use - Harvest management (needed)
5.3.2	Species-based actions - Sustainable use - Trade management (needed)

Bibliography

Bibliography:

Baillie, J. and Groombridge, B. (compilers and editors) 1996. 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Dauwe, B. 1993. Ecologie van het zeepaardje Hippocampus reidi (Syngnathidae) op het koraalrif van Bonaire (N.A.): Habitatgebruik, reproductie en interspecifieke interacties. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Netherlands.

IUCN. 2003. 2003 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on 18 November 2003.

Jennings, S., Reynolds, J.D. and Mills, S.C. 1998. Life history correlates of responses to fisheries exploitation. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 265:333-339.

Lieske, E. and Myers, R. 1994. Coral reef fishes: Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean including the Red Sea. Harper Collins. London, UK.

Lourie, S.A., Vincent, A.C.J. and Hall, H.J. 1999. Seahorses: an identification guide to the world's species and their conservation. Project Seahorse. London, UK.

Musick, J.A., Harbin, M.M., Berkeley, S.A., Burgess, G.H., Eklund, A.M., Findley, L., Gilmore, R.G., Golden, J.T., Ha, D.S., Huntsman, G.R., McGovern, J.C., Parker, S.J., Poss, S.G., Sala, E., Schmidt T.W., Sedberry, G.R., Weeks, H. and Wright, S.G. 2000. Marine, estuarine, and diadromous fish stocks at risk of extinction in North America (Exclusive of Pacific Salmonids). Fisheries 25(11): 6-30.

Perante, N.C., Pajaro, M.G., Meeuwig, J.J. and Vincent, A.C.J. 2002. Biology of a seahorse species Hippocampus comes in the central Philippines. Accepted by Journal of Fish Biology. 2001.

Rosa, I.L., Dias, T.L., and Baum, J.K. 2002. Threatened fishes of the world: Hippocampus reidi Ginsburg, 1933 (Syngnathidae). Environmental Biology of Fishes 64: 378.

Vari, R. 1982. Fishes of the western North Atlantic, subfamily Hippocampinae. The seahorses. Sears Foundation for Marine Research Memoir, Yale University, USA. 1(8): 173-189.

Vincent, A.C.J. 1990. Reproductive ecology of seahorses. PhD thesis. University of Cambridge. Cambridge, UK

Vincent, A.C.J. and Sadler, L.M. 1995. Faithful pair bonds in wild seahorses, Hippocampus whitei. Animal Behaviour 50: 1557-1569.

Vincent, A.C.J., Evans, K.L., and Marsden, A.D. 2005. Home range behaviour of the monogamous Australian seahorse, Hippocampus whitei. Environmental Biology of Fishes 72: 1–12.

Citation:	Project Seahorse 2003. Hippocampus reidi. In: IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 06 September 2008.
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