A marine conservationist has claimed seahorses will be EXTINCT within 30 years if the Chinese population continue to use the marine fish for medicine.
The claim was made today during a celebratory protest in Manchester’s Chinatown.
Led by staff from Manchester’s Sea Life Centre, a number of children from Barton Clough Primary School braved the cold dressed in a traditional Chinese ‘seahorse’ dragon to mark the Chinese New year this Friday.
This year is the Chinese Year of The Horse, and the Sea Life Centre hopes their unusual gesture will encourage the community to remember the seahorse too.
In Chinese culture seahorses are dried and sold as a remedy for a variety of ailments, particularly impotence. In recent years millions have been ground into powder to be turned into pills.
Neil Garrick-Maidment, Executive Director of the Seahorse Trust, a charity who is working in conjunction with the Sea Life Centre, has appealed for the Chinese community to help address this worrying issue.
“What we’re trying to do with this event today is actually promote an invitation to people who actually use traditional medicine and say to them, ‘work with us, let’s try and do something about this lets try and make a difference,” Nick told MM.
“Being the national Chinese Horse of the year, we thought it was a good opportunity to put a slight twist on that with seahorse of the year to promote the problems that are going on in the traditional medicine trade.”
MAGICAL: Children from Barton Clough Primary School line up for parade
“The trouble is there won’t be enough seahorses to keep going. There’s not going to be enough seahorses to keep going. In the next 20 to 30 years they will be extinct,” Neil said.
Sea Life Manchester’s curator Lucy Handel estimates that as many as 150million seahorses are dying every year to provide ingredients for Chinese traditional medicines.
She agrees that if the rate of fishing continues there will only be one outcome if action isn’t taken.
“That China has managed to preserve so much of its cultural heritage in the face of unprecedented economic growth is to be admired,” she said.
“But time is running short for the seahorse and we hope the Chinese people will readily forsake this one traditional remedy to spare a beautiful creature from almost certain extinction.”
Lucy understands that they must approach the issue with care as they are trying to stop an age-old Chinese tradition.
“The rest of the world cannot make demands of any nation in respect of traditions they have held dear for centuries, and we certainly don’t want to cause offence,” she said.
“We would not take kindly to another country insisting we gave up our traditional Sunday roast, for example.
“That is why ours is a friendly appeal on behalf of a species which delights and fascinates people the world over, and we are sure our Chinese friends will accept it in the spirit in which it is intended.”
Xingyuan Lu, 25, from Shenzhen, China told MM that the majority of Chinese people are unaware it is even an issue.
“It’s quite nice, but I don’t think it will work with Chinese people. I think most Chinese people don’t even realise that seahorses go into these pills,” Xingyuan told MM.
Xingyuan says the way forward is to try and educate the Chinese community. He said: “The Chinese government are so busy with other stuff to worry about than seahorses.
“I’m not saying this isn’t important, but it is better to talk to the people.”
GOOD CAUSE: Passers-by watch the parade in Manchester’s Chinatown
28-year-old Kino Chu, from Xi’an, China said the display wasn’t entirely obvious.
She told MM: “It’s very creative but for me it doesn’t matter. It just looks like a celebration of the Chinese New Year and people will still feel happy for that.
“It needs more explanation. I would just feel confused as to why they are trying to be seahorses.”
For more information on The Seahorse Trust, click here.
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