There is something majestic and endearing about the diminutive seahorse. It may have to do with fairy stories when we were young, or perhaps it´s simply their friendly, placid natures which delight children and adults alike. They appear to belong to a magical time. The seahorse is said to have, according to David Lindsay in his paper Seahorses: Flagships of our Coasts, “the snout of an aardvark, the spines of a puffer fish, the pouch of a kangaroo, the independent eyes of a lizard, the prehensile tail of a monkey and the color-changing capability of a chameleon.” On Stone Island, south of Mazatlán, Marine Biologists Eliezer A. Zuñiga Villarreal and Judith Nuñez Lecunda have approximately 1,500 of these enchanting creatures under their care. With the aid of government funds, they are in the process of building a seahorse farm, one of only five registered seahorse farms in the world, the others being in Australia, Hawaii and China. They have been working on the project for two years and when complete, they expect to house 3,000 seahorses which will be destined for export. The breeding farm presently consists of approximately 20 shallow nursery pools, four concrete breeding pools and several small aquariums, all of which are home to five different species of seahorse from the Pacific coast Hippocam-pos ingens to the more exotic Brazilian species, Hippocampos reidi. As Judith dipped her hand in a nursery pool to gently scoop up a half-inch baby, she explained that seahorses are unique in the aquatic world. Not only do they form a mon-ogamous union, but the female impregnates the male by depositing 200-600 miniscule eggs into the male pouch. Gestation lasts 2-6 weeks and culminates in the male expulsing live baby sea-horses into their tropical water home. The male then immediately becomes pregnant again. As slow swimmers, seahorses are prey to such predators as crabs, tuna, birds or turtles. But because they are prized as aquarium specimens, by the souvenir industry and makers of Chinese medicine, their most voracious predator is man. Approximately 39 countries in the world are involved in seahorse trading, the largest being India, followed by the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Estimates are that up to 20 million

seahorses are killed per year to be sold for traditional Chinese medicine, which uses ground seahorse as an aphrodisiac, aid to arthritis and even a cancer cure. As a result, these tiny creatures are on the brink of extinction. Commercial farming, according to Judith, is the only answer. It is impractical for aquariums, such as the Mazatlán aquarium, to maintain a seahorse breeding program, the reason being a seahorse can consume up to 3000 brine shrimp a day, its main food source and an expensive outlay. The lifespan of a seahorse is four years, but due to their susceptibility to disease in a closed environment many do not reach maturity. At the seahorse farm, constant monitoring of the seawater temperature in the pools and feeding keeps both Eliezer and Judith busy daily. Their biggest concern is that the hot, humid Mazatlán summers can produce gas bubble disease in the seahorses. To prevent this, all the pools are shaded and it seems to help. Last year the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species announced a ban on export and import of all species of seahorse in an effort to protect them. The blanket ban was applied, even though some species are not endangered, because customs officials internationally could not distinguish between those which could be traded and those which were endangered. At a conference in Mazatlán earlier this year, the convention revisited the issue and on May 15th they will announce if the ban will stand or be modified. Judith and Eliezer are not worried. All the seahorses at the farm, explained Judith, are second generation and will not fall under the trade prohibition. In fact, they are expecting to be granted their international export license in June this year. When that happens their market will expand from supplying their present market of Guad-alajara only, to exporting to the American and European aquarium trade. Seahorses must be a minimum of 10cm before they can be sold. Depending on their size, she says, seahorses fetch from $70-$100US each in the States, and 80-100 pesos in Mexico. The Stone Island Seahorse Farm is an answer the future of the preservation of the delicate seahorse in the wild. Once the hatchery is complete next fall, visitors will be welcome. It is well worth a trip to Stone Island to see it.