World’s smallest seahorse facing extinction in oil spill clean-up

Dwarf Seahorse/photo by Robert Sisson

One of the world’s smallest seahorse species could disappear due to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and subsequent clean-up efforts, conservationists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) warned today.

“The dwarf seahorse (Hippocampus zosterae), found only in waters off the Gulf Coast, now faces a bleak future after its much of its habitat was destroyed by the spill,” ZSL said in a news release.

“Scientists are worried that the clean-up process could further diminish dwarf seahorse populations and other marine life,” ZSL added.

Conservationists from the ZSL Project Seahorse team are urging BP to minimize the use of chemical dispersants and the burning of oil during the clean-up process, which is expected to take years, ZSL said.

The conservation charity said:

“Dwarf seahorses, which are less than one inch long, produce few young, making them vulnerable to environmental change.

“The population of dwarf seahorses is expected to decrease dramatically during the clean-up, after the spill exposed them to high levels of oil toxins and destroyed large swaths of their food-rich habitat.

“To slow the oil spill’s movement, BP has burned off the oil caught in seagrass mats floating in open water. While most seahorses live in seagrass beds in the coastal shallows of the Gulf, others live in these loose mats of vegetation offshore.

“Burning these mats has killed many marine animals while depriving others of their habitat and exposing them to further toxicity.”

“Seagrass is vital to the long-term health of coastal ecosystems, sheltering marine animals, acting as fish nurseries, improving water quality, and preventing erosion. In extreme cases where seahorses are at high risk of poisoning such as this one, seagrass mats and beds can be cut to reduce toxic exposure,” said Heather Koldewey, ZSL’s program manager for the International Marine and Freshwater Conservation Programme.

“However we are urging BP to continue to use booms in the clean-up to isolate the oil slicks. These can be skimmed, left to evaporate, or treated with biological agents like fertilisers, which promote the growth of micro-organisms that biodegrade oil,” Koldewey said.

“It’s absolutely critical that measures be taken to preserve the seagrass mats and beds during this vulnerable time.”

Heather Masonjones, a seahorse biologist at the University of Tampa, said: “It’s absolutely critical that measures be taken to preserve the seagrass mats and beds during this vulnerable time.

“Incidents such as the explosion of the Mariner Energy oil platform, in the Gulf of Mexico only last Thursday, demonstrate how we must act quickly and carefully to give these fragile marine species the best chance of survival.”

ZSL is an international scientific, conservation and educational charity. It runs two zoos, including London Zoo, carries out scientific research at the Institute of Zoology, and is involved in field conservation internationally.

National Geographic

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Protect corals with reef networks, U.N. study says

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“People have been creating marine protected areas for decades. Most of them are totally ineffective,” Peter Sale, a leader of the study at the U.N. University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health, told Reuters.

“You need a network of protected areas that functions well,” he said. “It’s important to get away from single protected areas which has been the common approach.

Fish and larvae of marine creatures can swim or be carried large distances, even from large protected areas.

That means it is often best to set up a network of small no-fishing zones covering the most vulnerable reefs, with catches allowed in between. Closing big zones can be excessive for conservation and alienate fishermen who then ignore bans.

Reefs from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean are nurseries for fish and vital for food supplies since about 40 percent of the world’s population lives within 50 km (30 miles) of the coast.

Climate change, pollution and over-fishing are among threats to reefs. Warmer oceans can damage corals, sometimes irreversibly. The U.N. University study is in a new handbook to help planners cooperate with marine scientists.

On land, planners can usually be confident that plants and animals will stay in areas set aside as national parks, Sale said. At sea, park limits are far less relevant.

The Great Barrier Reef

MANGROVES

In the past, he said, countries had sometimes set up large protected areas for reefs but then cleared mangroves along nearby coastlines to make way for hotels and beaches for scuba-diving tourists. That can damage some fish stocks. 

“In the Caribbean, snappers and groupers spend their lives as juveniles in mangroves and sea grass beds,” Sale said. As adults the fish go back to live on the reefs, creating a need for protected zones on both reefs and in mangroves.

Scientists recently discovered that the spiny lobster, the most valuable fishery in the Caribbean, has a larval stage lasting seven months, shorter than widely believed.

Understanding ocean currents can help to show how far they get dispersed within seven months before settling on the seabed. That can also help in deciding where to site protected zones.

Sale said Australia’s Great Barrier Reef was a good example of management, with a network of no-fishing zones and others open to tourism or fishing. That system meant a balance between the needs of people and the reef.

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