Documentary, Kingdom of the Seahorse
#Kingdom of the Seahorse" can refer to a documentary, an aquarium exhibit, or the classification of seahorses as a "kingdom" in a broader sense. The most prominent uses are a #PBS documentary, an aquarium exhibit, and an informal reference to the world of seahorses and their relatives.
Documentaries
Kingdom of the Seahorse is the title of a 1997 PBS NOVA documentary that follows biologist Amanda Vincent's research on seahorses and their threatened populations.
Aquariums
SEA LIFE aquariums have a specific exhibit called "Seahorse Kingdom" that showcases various species in an immersive, often Atlantis-themed environment.
Biological classification
Seahorses are a type of marine fish belonging to the genus Hippocampus within the family Syngnathidae, which also includes pipefish and seadragons.
The term "kingdom" is sometimes used informally in this context to highlight the unique characteristics and sometimes mythic status of these creatures. #PBSdocumentary,
#Documentary #KingdomoftheSeahorse #Seahorse
#Kingdom of the Seahorse" can refer to a documentary, an aquarium exhibit, or the classification of seahorses as a "kingdom" in a broader sense. The most prominent uses are a #PBS documentary, an aquarium exhibit, and an informal reference to the world of seahorses and their relatives.
Documentaries
Kingdom of the Seahorse is the title of a 1997 PBS NOVA documentary that follows biologist Amanda Vincent's research on seahorses and their threatened populations.
Aquariums
SEA LIFE aquariums have a specific exhibit called "Seahorse Kingdom" that showcases various species in an immersive, often Atlantis-themed environment.
Biological classification
Seahorses are a type of marine fish belonging to the genus Hippocampus within the family Syngnathidae, which also includes pipefish and seadragons.
The term "kingdom" is sometimes used informally in this context to highlight the unique characteristics and sometimes mythic status of these creatures. #PBSdocumentary,
#Documentary #KingdomoftheSeahorse #Seahorse
Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:00Tonight on Nova, into the realm of one of the most elusive creatures of the sea.
00:08Tiny, secretive, seahorses reveal little of their fragile existence.
00:16Now, Nova takes you into a hidden world of elaborate rituals where only the male gives birth.
00:24Surprises abound in the kingdom of the seahorse.
00:30In the kingdom of the seahorse
00:59they are enchanting, almost magical in appearance.
01:03The seahorse is long inspired myth and legend.
01:11They pulled the chariot of the Greek god Poseidon.
01:15And in China they are considered charms of love.
01:27They have the majestic head of a dragon and the grasping tail of a monkey.
01:37Their skin, stretched over a knobby skeleton, resembles the armor of an insect.
01:41And free, roving eyes circle like those of a chameleon.
01:53Yet seahorses are simply a type of fish.
01:55But unlike other fish, or most animals on earth, they possess one truly magical trait.
02:07In seahorses, it's the male who gets pregnant and gives birth.
02:23The mysteries of the seahorse kingdom hold an irresistible allure.
02:37Led by biologist Amanda Vincent, this team is the first to track seahorse life in the wild.
02:43After rising at 4 a.m., they pull on scuba gear, still wet from the day before, and head into the cold and murky water of Sydney Harbour, Australia.
02:55Right offshore, in the shallows of this suburban bay, lies a hidden realm.
03:05A thriving seahorse colony Amanda Vincent found in 1989.
03:14She has by now spent thousands of hours swimming with these remarkable creatures.
03:20One response I get if I say I study seahorses is disbelief.
03:24People say they don't really exist, do they?
03:26And more or less classify them with the unicorn as a mythical animal.
03:29And get positively excited when I say not only do they exist, but I work and live with them.
03:41While they've captivated humans for thousands of years,
03:45the details of their secret lives are only now coming to light.
03:49They've remained mysteries of nature in part because they're among the most elusive of animals.
04:00This bright yellow species is easy to spot.
04:03But the other seahorses that live in the harbour are masters of disguise.
04:07They lie well obscured in thick seagrass beds.
04:22In the underwater meadow, the only clue to their presence may be the curl of a tail or the glint of an eye.
04:28Seahorses are really very difficult to watch in the wild.
04:35My first attempt was a screaming disaster where I couldn't see anything.
04:39And it wasn't until I developed this really clear image of what a seahorse looked like
04:43that I was able to find them even in my sleep.
04:45Camouflage is the best means of protection for these sedentary fish.
04:56Some have the ability to change colour to match their surroundings,
05:00whether muted seagrass or brightly coloured coral.
05:05Within minutes, a solid purple seahorse develops speckles when showered by the bubbles of an aquarium tank.
05:25If swept out into wide open seas, seahorses will seek shelter in any available cover.
05:31This floating mat of weeds a hundred miles off the Florida coast offers many hiding places.
05:46But predators also lurk here, so seahorses take a further step to protect themselves.
05:56This sargassum fish may be puzzled.
05:58His potential prey has not only changed colour,
06:03but has also grown spikes that help him blend into his floating home.
06:18But seahorses generally stay close to shore.
06:21In the shallows of most coastal waters throughout the world,
06:23from Nova Scotia as far south as Tasmania,
06:27some type of seahorse can be found.
06:30If you look carefully.
06:36These unusually upright fish are designed for stability rather than speed.
06:41A dorsal fin that flickers up to 35 times a second helps precision movement through the grassy maze.
06:56But they spend most time anchored to whatever hold is handy.
07:00Seagrass, sponge or soft coral.
07:02They reach out to catch small crustaceans floating by.
07:09Seahorses have neither teeth nor stomachs, yet manage to digest thousands of tiny shrimp each day.
07:17They patiently watch as their prey come near.
07:25Shift slightly to position themselves.
07:30And strike with a powerful suck.
07:34But the most intriguing thing about seahorses is their social life.
07:47And only in the wild, spending time in their domain, can biologists watch it unfold.
07:53Within a grassy meadow of Sydney Harbour lies a complex social world.
08:08One that Amanda Vincent has come to know well.
08:12Every year about a hundred seahorses swim here from deeper waters to spend their seven-month breeding season.
08:19Each is tagged with a numbered necklace.
08:26This allows Amanda's team to recognize every animal.
08:30And observe the curious relationship between the sexes.
08:38In this world, the male is the homebody.
08:41He lays claim to a small patch of seabed, often clinging to the same blade of grass, day in and day out.
08:50The one social interlude in an otherwise solitary day is when his partner arrives for her morning visit.
08:59It happens like clockwork, within a few hours of each dawn.
09:05And Amanda is there to take note.
09:09A female roams widely, passing through the territories of many males.
09:17But she has eyes only for her partner.
09:21She knows what he looks like and knows where he lives.
09:25After their initial greeting, each seahorse pair perform a gentle and familiar dance.
09:39The couple entwine tails and promenade through the sea grass together.
09:45This daily ritual cements the strong bond between them.
09:53They make the most devoted of partners.
09:57Remaining in pairs and scorning all others throughout the breeding season and maybe beyond.
10:02This is quite extraordinary in the animal world.
10:06Usually we find that males are cheating madly and have a few other partners on the side.
10:11Or females are off seeking more matings.
10:14And these seahorses, they're strictly faithful to one partner.
10:17And the way we've looked at this is by tracking individuals through the seagrass bed.
10:23The researchers spend up to six hours a day underwater,
10:27making rounds to check on each seahorse in the colony.
10:31Spending so much time with these fish,
10:34Amanda hardly needs the tags to tell them apart.
10:39Each seahorse has a distinctive look,
10:42and a crown on its head as unique as a thumbprint.
10:45They also have their own personalities.
10:51Well, I was particularly fond of male 97.
10:54He was just a handsome, big, solid seahorse,
10:57who every now and then would throw a mild tantrum, and I liked that.
11:00Theoretically, we're never meant to ascribe any human emotions to animals,
11:05but to be honest, when you're under the water for half of your waking hours
11:09with a particular community of animals,
11:11it's very hard not to think that they have something in common with you
11:14and not to develop some rapport with them.
11:15We just have to be very careful not to let that social viewpoint
11:20enter the scientific research we're doing,
11:22and we try to be very detached on the actual data.
11:23In the turbulent waters of the harbor, the seahorses must cling tightly to their blades of grass.
11:37They feel comfortable only as long as they have an anchor.
11:41There's something rather extraordinary about having a fish hold your hand,
11:47and seahorses just do that.
11:50If you want to handle a seahorse and you offer it a finger,
11:53it stays calm and relaxed as long as it can hold your hand.
11:55Amanda carefully captures any new seahorse she finds in the colony.
12:10She leaves a clip behind to know where to return it.
12:13For the seahorse, this patch of seagrass is home.
12:19Back on shore, each animal can be measured and tagged.
12:37Across all species, the size of an adult seahorse ranges from roughly half an inch to more than a foot.
12:51This Australian seahorse fits neatly in a human hand.
13:03By studying them over time, the researchers have found that seahorses grow continuously throughout their lives,
13:12which can be as long as four years.
13:15The snout length is 11.1.
13:21A pregnant seahorse from the study site has given birth.
13:24Amanda's team takes particular care with a tiny offspring.
13:34For these babies are unlike any in the world.
13:40They were born from a pregnant male like this one.
13:44Over the course of his breeding season, this seahorse will father over a thousand young,
13:51all nurtured within his body.
13:54The male seahorse is distinguished from the female by a pouch which acts as a womb.
14:02In seahorses, it's only the male who gets pregnant and gives birth.
14:06It was this extraordinary fact that first captivated Amanda.
14:15But to learn more about seahorse parenting took patience.
14:19I've been studying seahorses for maybe five years before I ever saw mating in the wild.
14:23When you consider that my research was on their reproduction, their mating,
14:28that was a big gap in my understanding.
14:31And when finally, after nine hours in the water one day,
14:34I stuck with it and got a mating in full glory just in front of my mask.
14:39It was like finally it was all paying off. It was just wonderful.
14:44For the first time, seahorse mating in the wild has been captured on film.
14:49It begins with a greeting dance that pairs perform each morning.
14:58But then continues like a slow moving minuet over the course of many hours.
15:09Each pair stays in tight formation.
15:13They move tails entwined to different resting places within the seagrass bed.
15:19At times, they cling to the same blade of grass and spin around it like a maypole.
15:28As the moment nears, the male seahorse twists his body,
15:44perhaps to signal that his pouch is empty and that he is eager to mate.
15:54With a rear of their heads, they're ready for the attempt.
15:57The male is on the left and it's actually possible to see his pouch bulge as it fills with eggs from the female.
16:13Fertilization takes place within his body.
16:22Back on the grassy sea floor, the male sways gently to settle the eggs in his pouch.
16:33His partner has left the rest of the work to him.
16:43A lot of people find it really difficult to believe me when I say it's the male that gets pregnant.
16:48And I think that's because we're mammals.
16:50And in mammals, by definition, it's the female that carries the young.
16:55Which raises a whole interesting perspective that we have to think about whether the roles of males and females are permanent and defined or fixed.
17:05Or whether, in fact, there's quite a lot of flexibility.
17:07In the animal kingdom, parenthood is a loosely defined term.
17:17Most underwater animals, like this sea urchin, invest little in each offspring.
17:22Their reproductive strategy relies on numbers rather than nurturing.
17:28This male releases clouds of sperm into the open water.
17:32While a female sea urchin spawns another cloud with thousands of eggs.
17:43Some fish do protect developing young from the dangers of the open water.
17:49But the means may strike us as unconventional.
17:55African cichlids incubate their offspring in their mouths.
17:58After sucking up eggs she's laid, the female cichlid entices the male in this circle dance.
18:06She may mistake spots on his fin for more eggs.
18:11When he releases sperm, she takes some into her mouth.
18:16After ten days of brooding, the young will hatch.
18:23Here it's the female who endures this bizarre form of labor.
18:35But it's not unusual for male fish to do the mothering.
18:39Like this one building a nest for eggs he'll fertilize.
18:45In over half of the fish families known to care for their young,
18:48it's the male who invests the effort.
18:56This father is no exception.
18:59A close relative of the seahorse, pipefish provide clues to how male pregnancy may have evolved.
19:05Pipefish vary greatly in size and color.
19:12But on close inspection, all resemble seahorses that have been stretched and straightened out.
19:19A number of pipefish species form faithful pairs.
19:24And those that do engage in their own daily dance.
19:43The other close relatives of seahorses are the equally magical sea dragons.
19:48These leafy sea dragons from southern Australia float well disguised among the weeds.
20:06In both sea dragons and pipefish, it's the male who carries the fertilized eggs to development.
20:11The eggs may be covered under a flap of skin or exposed on the belly of the fish.
20:28It's a form of male pregnancy.
20:31But the seahorse goes a step further.
20:33Protecting the fertilized eggs in a womb-like pouch.
20:44Male seahorses may seem maternal, but they produce sperm.
20:49And this, by definition, makes them male.
20:54But do they show the macho behavior that's the norm among males in the animal kingdom?
21:00Do they fight over females?
21:04Or are the females the aggressors?
21:15To answer these questions, Amanda Vincent set up a sort of dating service in a laboratory aquarium.
21:20She puts a single male into a tank full of females.
21:28His pouch is empty, and he's ready to mate.
21:31The females, ready and eager themselves, do compete for his attention.
21:37But the contest remains relatively tame.
21:42The situation is quite different when a single female is placed with two males.
21:46The gentle seahorses begin snapping and circling one another, vying for the chance to mate.
21:57Adding an additional male to the mix heightens the competition.
22:01Here, three determined suitors try to outmaneuver each other, with tail wrestling, head butts, and body blocks.
22:18Unusual moves for these docile fish.
22:20Even after one succeeds in winning the female's favor, the other two are so worked up they continue chasing each other.
22:38For these males, as for others in the animal kingdom, nothing spurs aggression like the challenge of a rival.
22:55In the wild, such aggression is rarely seen.
22:58But other forces can interfere with mating.
23:00Occasionally, in the surge of turbulent waters, the male and female must struggle to position themselves.
23:14Some of this female's large clutch of eggs squirt into the sea instead of her partner.
23:19Despite the loss, the male settles down to tend the eggs he has received.
23:34In three weeks, he'll be ready to give birth.
23:37The King George Maternity Hospital in Sydney delivers 500 babies a month.
23:46But they've never seen a patient like this one before.
23:51With the help of a narrow endoscope, Dr. Martha Hickey offers Amanda an astounding view right inside the pouch.
23:59The male seahorse has been anesthetized.
24:02Okay. That's it. I think we're in. Okay.
24:04Goodness. What am I seeing there? I'm a bit confused.
24:07Ah. There's something breaking loose because those are all the tissues they're wrapped in.
24:11Each one has its own pocket. You see the seahorse eye?
24:13There's a tail. And then this is just breaking loose from its tissue pocket.
24:16These guys are ready to be born.
24:18Look at the eye. Can we get better focus on that eye?
24:22There's the tail. Ah, brilliant. Okay. Great.
24:25There's a snout. See, it's breathing in the pouch.
24:27They're already, when they're born, they're fully independent.
24:29They're completely fully formed seahorses. This is amazing.
24:35The pouch is a self-contained world of its own.
24:38Each baby has its own tissue pocket, and it gets oxygen and nutrients from the father's bloodstream.
24:46Surprisingly, their development is regulated by the same hormone as in mammals, prolactin.
24:52The male must withstand the constant activity of these near-full-term babies.
25:04Some seahorses brood up to 1,500 young.
25:07They probably have about 150 or 200 young in there. Something like that.
25:12Maybe, maybe 90, I don't know. We'll have to have a look. He's not a very big male, so it may only be about 90.
25:17They're very active inside. I'm surprised at how active they are.
25:21Well, I think he was probably going to give birth tonight. I had no idea he was this pregnant.
25:25I thought he was getting towards pregnancy, but these guys are just amazing.
25:27I always wanted to look inside one of these. This is the first.
25:41The birth itself is equally remarkable.
25:45The labor begins at night, and can last as long as two days.
25:50The male has contractions. He pumps and thrusts to dislodge the young packed inside his pouch.
26:05Finally, the seal of the pouch bursts open, and tiny seahorses emerge.
26:15The fluid in the pouch is changed throughout the pregnancy to become similar to salt water.
26:20Easing the shock for seahorse young.
26:29The day after his ordeal, the male is usually impregnated again.
26:41Immediately after birth, the young seahorses leave their father's care, fully formed and independent.
26:47But few will survive the dangers of the ocean.
26:54Their first threat is starvation.
26:57They must catch thousands of tiny shrimp each day.
27:05They struggle to anchor themselves to the sea floor, but they're often cast adrift on ocean currents.
27:11By six months, the survivors are ready to find mates.
27:17At this size, they are stronger, but still not safe.
27:21They're prone to parasites and diseases.
27:27Devoured by crabs and tuna, skates and rays.
27:32But the greatest threat to their survival lies beyond the ocean.
27:41Millions of seahorses are sold each year for use in traditional Chinese medicine.
27:46And Hong Kong is the center of this trade.
28:00Amanda Vincent came here to find out more.
28:04What she saw, shocked her.
28:05When I see complete mounds of seahorses like this, I'm completely struck by the fact that I've never seen this many living seahorses in my life.
28:17And here they are in a great big heap, and I can't even imagine the range, the number of places they must have come from to fill buckets like this.
28:36And I know that there are many more buckets like this.
28:38The seahorse trade is legal and unregulated, and demand for seahorses is growing rapidly.
28:48I guess I get frightened because I have no idea how many seahorses are in the world.
28:53I know that seahorses' populations are declining, and I don't know at what rate.
28:57I just feel like we're not in control of what's happening here.
29:00Seahorses come from dozens of countries, from Belize and Brazil to Vietnam and Malaysia.
29:06In a single year, over 100,000 were fished in Florida alone, where trawling boats are equipped to harvest a catch in quantity.
29:20This fisherman makes his living primarily from shrimp, but he keeps an eye out for other goods caught in his net.
29:36As it skims over the ocean floor, the trawl may trap, or kill, any number of animals that make their home in the seagrass.
29:46When shrimp are separated from the other's sea life, seahorses are often part of the mix, including pregnant males.
29:57Even if they are kept alive, their young will not survive.
30:00Most of the seahorses found will be sold.
30:05A few injured are swept back with the debris.
30:11In other parts of the world, the fishermen may be less well equipped, but they're even more determined to catch their quarry.
30:25Seahorse fishing is critical to the livelihoods of thousands in the Philippines.
30:34In the village of Hondumun, Nestor Botero is one of the fishermen who hunts them.
30:39Six nights a week, he heads out to a reef, armed with a bucket and a lantern.
30:50The seahorses emerge from crevices in the coral during the night.
30:56Even though it's dark, and Nestor is diving as deep as 30 feet on one breath of air, he's still able to find them.
31:03Once spotted, a seahorse is easy to catch.
31:11Rather than fleeing, a threatened animal will grasp its perch all the more tightly, relying on camouflage and body armor for protection.
31:22But all to no avail, when the predator is an expert human fisherman.
31:26Most of the seahorses caught around the world end up in Hong Kong.
31:39So it was here that Amanda, rather cautiously, began her investigation.
31:44You can't go in straightforwardly and say, hey, I'm here to find out about the seahorse trade.
31:49Instead, you have to approach it quietly.
31:51So some days, I was just a silly little giddy tourist who just wanted to buy a yellow seahorse for my brother, who wanted one as a souvenir.
31:58And other days, I was interested in explaining that we wanted to culture seahorses and was there a market.
32:04And to raise capital in the West, we'd have to know how big the market was, and looking for serious figures and data.
32:08Nearly every importer we visited in China needed 100 kilos, 500 kilos a ton tomorrow.
32:15Are you able to get lots of seahorses?
32:18How many more seahorses could he use every month if we could supply them?
32:22They want more than 300 to 500 kilograms or endless, whatever you've got.
32:31500 kilograms, half a ton is a lot of seahorses.
32:38In the Philippines, fishermen like Nestor Botero may catch only a few each night.
32:43And the buyers are hungry for more.
32:48A seahorse this size earns Nestor 15 pesos, only about 60 cents.
32:54By the time they get to Hong Kong, weight for weight seahorses are more valuable than silver.
33:07Bleached and dried, seven seahorses are worth over $75.
33:16The mystique surrounding these remarkable animals has been their downfall.
33:20They're sold as if there's no limit to their medicinal powers, as everything from a heart disease cure to an aphrodisiac.
33:29Who uses these, men or women uses these mostly?
33:33Many men, they use it to become more manly, something like that.
33:37So for sexual function, sexual disorders and things like that?
33:40Not disorders, but just to become a little bit stronger.
33:43Stronger, yes.
33:44We believe that when they are alive, they stay together in the sea, I mean, for their life.
33:49So we believe that they have great abilities, otherwise they couldn't stay that long for life together.
33:55So you believe that because they form pairs for life, it must be because they're sexually happy, is that right?
34:00That's right.
34:01One grave concern to Amanda is the move from the sale of whole animals to seahorses that are ground up for pre-packaged pills and capsules.
34:15Seahorse genital tonic pills. And what's the ingredients in here?
34:19They mix it with lots of other medicines.
34:22These pre-packaged medicines feed a fast-growing market, driven largely by economic expansion in China.
34:33And they're used in other countries as well.
34:36Is that Japanese?
34:37So they must sell these in Japan as well?
34:40The Japanese like this a lot.
34:42The best estimate at the moment is that something like 20 million seahorses are used every year in Chinese medicine alone.
34:49And that's a conservative estimate. I'm having to revise it upwards all the time.
34:54It's impossible to know exactly what impact that's having on wild populations.
34:58I mean, nobody else is underwater looking at seahorses.
35:03Seahorses are collected for more than use in Chinese medicine.
35:09Hundreds of thousands are sold live for display in aquarium tanks.
35:14With their extraordinary looks, it's no wonder that seahorses are collector's items.
35:24And those that come in brilliant colors are particularly prized.
35:32Seahorses might appear well-suited for aquarium life.
35:35But few adults thrive, and their young fare even less well.
35:42I think it's really important to realize that any seahorse you see in the aquarium or in captivity has come directly from wild populations.
35:52Very few are captive bred.
35:53And the way seahorses are traded right now, many, many of the seahorses that come into the aquarium trade are still juveniles.
36:02So you're taking the very young seahorses from the wild populations before they can even get around to breeding.
36:08They get a lot of diseases, and it's extremely rare for anybody to manage to raise young to adulthood.
36:13Some aquariums have the skill and resources to care for seahorses, but most hobbyists who collect them do not.
36:26As this trade grows, survival of seahorses in the wild is further endangered.
36:31The trip to Hong Kong helped convince Amanda that she had to do something.
36:45She found support to set up a conservation project in the Philippines.
36:50A small crusade to save the seahorse.
36:53She entered a remote world with little idea of the challenges ahead.
37:09I guess I didn't know when I came to the Philippines what I was going to find.
37:13I'd never been to the Philippines until I started looking into the whole seahorse trade issue.
37:17She would soon discover just how vital seahorses are to this area.
37:25900 people live in the village of Honduman, and their lives revolve around the sea.
37:33It might look idyllic, but this is one of the poorest regions of the Philippines.
37:37By catching fish, Nestor Botero can feed his family.
37:53But to earn hard cash, he has to find seahorses.
38:01I've been fishing seahorses for 18 years.
38:03They are very important to the livelihood of my family,
38:07because I use them to buy food and medicine.
38:16Over half of Nestor's incomes from seahorses.
38:19And with this money, he can buy rice for his family of nine.
38:25But there's trouble ahead.
38:26Each morning, as the villagers compare catches, the buckets are nearly empty.
38:37A few years ago, they'd bring in as many as 50 seahorses from a night's work.
38:43Today, they're lucky if they catch 15.
38:46It's a dire situation for both villagers and seahorses.
38:58Seahorse fishing has changed over the years.
39:01Before, there were very few fishermen.
39:04Now, there are many more.
39:06And that's why the seahorses are disappearing.
39:08If you ask the fishers what would happen if the seahorse populations totally collapsed,
39:15if there were no seahorses to catch,
39:17they almost refuse to consider it because it's such a frightening prospect.
39:21One of our main jobs here is to make sure that we work simultaneously for the seahorses and the seahorse fishers.
39:27It's actually quite easy because we want the same thing as the seahorse fishers.
39:32We want there to be enough seahorses that you can fish off a few without losing the entire species.
39:40This scenario would work only if Amanda could convince the villagers to radically change their fishing practices.
39:51Not surprisingly, she faced some resistance.
39:54But at her side to help was Maravik Pajaro of a Philippine conservation group, a biologist herself.
40:05She tried to enlist the villagers' support.
40:08We were very hopeful that the project would go well.
40:12It's just that we had some doubts about the village accepting us because we don't know them.
40:18They don't know us.
40:19Especially, there's Amanda, a westerner, a white lady, so they would call.
40:27We had to consult the village if they would be willing to work with us.
40:34The meeting seemed to be going pretty calmly until eventually one man, Noong Nestor, developed enough confidence to say,
40:41what are you really here for? What are you actually trying to do?
40:44Amanda didn't realize it, but there were rumors about her ulterior motives.
40:54Handuman is a tight-knit community, and the mayor of the village in particular was suspicious.
41:00When Amanda first came here, some people said that she was looking for sunken gold.
41:11And we were all worried about the motives of her project.
41:17Amanda had to convince the people of Handuman that she went diving not to find gold,
41:27but to learn more about the seahorses there.
41:31And ultimately, it was her seahorse expertise that was the key to gaining their trust.
41:42She found on her dives that the seahorses of the Philippines behaved much like others she knew from around the world.
41:48Pregnant males stayed put in their own small territories.
41:52And their faithful partners were often at their sides.
41:58When she shared her insights about seahorse life with the local fishermen, the tide began to turn.
42:07I believe what Amanda said, because I also see the male and female seahorses face each other underwater.
42:16Amanda also had new things to teach them.
42:24I think a lot of people are really surprised that it's actually the male that gives birth.
42:32The women found this more amusing than the men.
42:37The seahorses are doing it right, so the males would experience the pains of the birth.
42:44Amanda was on the right track, but her style had to be tempered.
42:50She could get imposing, and we'd get into arguments with her.
42:57She could be very excited, and she would go, go, go.
43:01I would say, calm down, Amanda. Your pace is too fast for us.
43:06So in the end, we would settle it.
43:09We would understand her. She would understand us.
43:12So our partnership for now is going well.
43:15The gradual approach began to pay off, as biologists and local people worked together to design a conservation plan.
43:32The old-timers of Handumun had much to teach the scientists.
43:37They could point out areas where various species once thrived and now are scarce.
43:41The villagers also agreed to help the project by showing the biologists their seahorses before they sold them.
43:53This was a simple way of finding out the types and numbers of seahorses they caught, and where they fished for them.
44:02While the seahorses were measured, the biologists questioned the fishermen for extra details.
44:06One young villager has even joined Amanda's team.
44:13Milo Socias used to catch seahorses himself, and his knowledge of the fishing practice has made him invaluable.
44:2138.8.
44:24We got really worried because so many of the fishers were bringing in pregnant males, and when you take a male and kill him, you also kill the young.
44:30You can try asking the fishers not to catch pregnant males, but realistically, if they leave them in the sea, somebody else will take them.
44:37It's just a fishery where everybody fishes everywhere.
44:40So we were trying to think of some way where the fishers wouldn't lose money, but we would be able to get those young into the wild.
44:48Together with the fishermen, they came up with an elegant solution.
44:51Now, whenever a pregnant male is captured, he's placed inside a cage.
44:58Here, the protected male can safely give birth.
45:06The tiny newborn can slip away through the mesh out into the open sea.
45:11The fathers, trapped inside, are then collected.
45:25As the benefits of the project became clear, the villagers agreed to take a bold step.
45:48To set aside an area of the reef where fishing was banned altogether.
45:52This sanctuary will protect seahorses and all the other wildlife in its borders.
46:00So it's a complete sanctuary now.
46:03The sanctuary has only been going for about eight months now, I suppose it's been enforced.
46:17What's exciting everybody is how quickly we're starting to see results.
46:19All the fishers are talking about how many more fishes there are in there, and the seahorses are certainly recovering rather quickly.
46:26When we walk around the village, it's a source of pride that comes up over and over again that they are making a difference.
46:32So now what we're trying to do is track and see what's happening to the catches outside the reserve.
46:36The villagers, skilled in the art of spotting seahorses, help the biologists monitor their population.
46:51There's evidence that not only are numbers booming inside the sanctuary, but there are more seahorses outside its borders.
47:03The young born here apparently drift to other sections of the reef.
47:12But the very success of the sanctuary introduced a new problem.
47:17Poachers.
47:29More and more fishermen from neighboring islands entered the sanctuary to take the rich pickings.
47:33The people of Handumun decided to put a stop to it.
47:41And with Amanda's help, they obtained a new boat dedicated to patrolling the sanctuary.
47:46Each evening, the boat heads out to protect the seahorses from poachers.
48:01There's nowhere else in this part of the Philippines where there's an enforced sanctuary,
48:06the way that the villagers have chosen to enforce this one.
48:08And it's stirred people up a lot.
48:10This village is now not allowing illegal fishing.
48:13They're patrolling all their waters and their sanctuary particularly carefully.
48:17So this has upset a lot of local people who just accepted that illegal fishing or rules against illegal fishing would never be enforced.
48:23They never have been before.
48:24Why would you think they would be now?
48:31But Amanda had an even more ambitious plan.
48:35Fish farming.
48:40Now the Handumun villagers are building an underwater corral for a whole seahorse colony.
48:48If it works, farming seahorses could one day replace fishing from the wild.
48:59Well, these are the first pairs.
49:01Some of the fishers already promised that they'd give pairs to put in this corral.
49:03So this was the first pair that was brought in this morning.
49:05And you see he's already pregnant, so it'll be a good start.
49:08Besides his conservation goal, seahorse farming could provide an economic base for the village.
49:19This corral will be big enough for dozens of breeding pairs.
49:23There's talk about one day collecting the young that are born here
49:27and raising them to adulthood in tanks on shore.
49:29But this will be difficult because the captive young need a constant supply of live food.
49:44Each day they consume up to 3,000 brine shrimp.
49:48The outlook for seahorse farming is uncertain.
49:55But there is reason to hope that the future for seahorse conservation will be secure.
50:02We decided that we really needed to ensure that when we leave as a team, which leave we will one day,
50:15there had to be something left behind.
50:17So we established a scholarship, a high school scholarship,
50:20whereby that person would spend one or two days a week with us as an apprentice in marine conservation.
50:24We've been really lucky in our first scholarship student.
50:29Milo has just been an exciting find.
50:31He was a seahorse fisher, so he has a very strong understanding of some of the problems of the seahorse fishery.
50:36But he also spreads a lot of our messages to other people.
50:44Spreading the word has already paid big dividends.
50:47News of the Handumun project has reached neighboring villages.
50:54And they've started to change their fishing practices.
50:58Seeing conservation as a way to build up dwindling seahorse populations.
51:03It's very exciting that obviously the villagers themselves are talking about this project in positive terms
51:09and spreading the ideas, because that's the way that we're going to expand the scope of the initiatives really, really quickly.
51:14is if the village decides it wants to tell other people about it.
51:17And that's obviously what's happening.
51:21The people of this neighboring village have now set up their own wildlife sanctuary.
51:26It's solid evidence that the efforts of Amanda's team are paying off.
51:36While their motives may vary, the end goal of fishermen and conservationists may be the same.
51:44In general terms, there are two approaches to conservation.
51:54Quite a number of people feel it very important to protect the individuals of a species very closely
52:01by putting up fences or by putting trade vans on them.
52:04The other approach, I suppose, is just accepting that those animals cannot all be protected, not each and every one of them.
52:14And instead you need to work towards ensuring that the population survive and just some individuals will be killed and will die.
52:20The latter approach, I think, is more sustainable.
52:25So we're working very hard to integrate what people need with what the animals themselves need and building for a future for both.
52:33We are collaborating in the project, and I'm very happy that we are part of it because we believe that this project will increase the number of seahorses in the future.
52:50And these seahorses are very important to our families.
52:54I have a very important step to our families.
52:58But it's important for them all parents to our families.
53:01And also those elders to our family.
53:02The importance of understanding of the families.
53:04To the families of the families of the families of the families of the families of the families of the families.
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54:15And to learn more about how science can solve the mysteries of our world, ask about our many other NOVA videos.
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