Managing Fisheries

Project Seahorse is actively working to limit the effects of fishing on populations of seahorses, their habitats and the thousands of species in their communities.

Our work is directed at ensuring that exploitation is both sustainable and legal. We recognise that fisheries contribute greatly to global food security and human well-being, and that there are some good examples of sustainable fisheries.

Our ambition is to eliminate fisheries that destroy populations and habitats and help rationalise the remaining fishing pressure so that seahorse populations begin to recover.

If seahorses are recovering, many other species will also benefit.

Our work on fisheries has been wide ranging, with many years of assessing the impacts of fisheries globally on seahorses and other marine life. We have actively contributed to managing small-scale fisheries in the Philippines, with a focus on target fisheries in an artisanal/subsistence context. We have also engaged with a great many non-selective fisheries, especially small- and large-scale trawling. All our fisheries work has embraced and integrated research, management and policy considerations in a search for sustainability. Along the way, we have uncovered many new aspects of fisheries, especially around annihilation bottom trawling, the role of women and management approaches to invertebrates.