Zamboanga BoC seizes seahorse shipment worth million

ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Bureau of Customs (BOC) in this city has intercepted and confiscated 15 small bales of dried seahorses with an estimated market value of R3.6 million.

BOC District 11 Collector Atty. Lyceo Martinez said BOC operatives, in tandem with other maritime law enforcement units in this city assisted them in the opening of a 20 foot container van at the local port late Wednesday afternoon.

Martinez said that during their inspection of the cargos inside the Oceanic Container 20 footer Van bearing the number 215862-8 20, they were able to notice 15 small bales carefully wrapped with plastic and placed in the middle of the cargos.

When they opened one of the bales, they saw huge dried seahorses. This prompted them to call the owner of the cargo identified as Ramon Sayson who denied any knowledge of the seahorses placed inside his container van.

Martinez immediately ordered the maritime police to place Sayson under custodial investigation in order to extract from him more information on the real owner of the cargo.

According to Martinez, the seahorse they intercepted sells for R30,000 per kilo.

Martinez also confirmed that they received information from a reliable source that an Oceanic Container Van bearing the number 215862-8 contained an undetermined number of boxes of dried seahorses.

Martinez said the catch and sale of seahorse which is now considered an endangered species is prohibited under Philippine laws.

The Philippines is a center of seahorse diversity, with at least nine species in its national seas but conservation concerns arose from earlier surveys of fishers which indicated that seahorse catches had declined about 70% from 1985-1995, Martinez said.

He said the seahorse is mainly found in shallow tropical and temperate waters and lives in sheltered areas such as seagrass beds, estuaries, coral reefs, or mangroves.