Project Seahorse promotes fishing practices that consider impacts on marine animals and ecosystems as well as human coastal communities. Finding a balance requires biological and socioeconomic knowledge and integration of research findings with marine management.

To date we have motivated the Queensland (Australia) government to set up a fisheries observer system to track incidental capture of syngnathids in shrimp trawls; developed guidelines for Queensland shrimp trawler captains to avoid catching syngnathids; and published the first studies of seahorse capture in trawl fishing gear.

Other projects include:

• Investigation of bycatch in tropical shrimp fisheries, which are believed to be a major cause of populations declines of many species, including seahorses (Mexico)
• Analysis of bycatch of syngnathids in major Australian fisheries - catch composition, abundance, habitat associations and trade (Australia). 

Program publications

Foster, S.J. and A.C.J. Vincent (2010) Tropical shrimp trawl fisheries: Fishers' knowledge of and attitudes about a doomed fishery. Marine Policy 34: 437-446 DOI:10.1016/j.marpol.2009.09.010

Foster, S.J. and A.C.J. Vincent (2010) Using life history to assess potential for shrimp trawl impacts on small fishes. Journal of Fish Biology 76(10): 2434-2454 DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8649.2010.02631.x

Perry, A. L., K. E. Lunn, and A. C. J. Vincent (2010) Fisheries, large-scale trade, and conservation of seahorses in Malaysia and Thailand. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 20:464-475

Baum, J.K., J.J. Meeuwig and A.C.J. Vincent (2003) Bycatch of lined seahorses (Hippocampus erectus) in a Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl fishery. Fishery Bulletin 101(4):721-731