Alert issued over seahorse poaching fears
SECURITY is being beefed up for the festive season to clamp down on the poaching of the endangered Knysna seahorse.
Yesterday, the Garden Route National Park urged residents and environmental enthusiasts to get involved with various other campaigns as well, such as the reporting of pollution around the estuary.
The Knysna seahorse is the only seahorse on the endangered list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
It is protected by acts of parliament.
Restricted activities prohibited in terms of the legislation include gathering, collecting, catching, importing, exporting, selling, luring, feeding and moving seahorses.
Garden Route National Park spokeswoman Nandi Mgwadlamba said the seahorses were only found in shallow estuaries in Knysna, the Swartvlei estuary in Sedgefield and Keurbooms in Plettenberg Bay.
Mgwadlamba said that while details on poaching trends were limited, rangers had recently received an increase of reports of suspected poaching. “They [poachers] sell them to Asian markets for medicines and herbal remedies,” she said.
In 2014, SARS customs officials based at OR Tambo International Airport found a parcel containing 279 dried seahorses, valued at about R414 000, destined for Hong Kong .
Mgwadlamba said teams, including members of the Marine Ranger Corps and honorary rangers from Knysna, were assisting police and law enforcement agencies to clamp down on poaching of the sea horses.
According to research, the Knysna seahorse was experiencing a “continuing decline”.
Anyone who spots poaching or suspicious activity around Knysna or surrounding areas can contact Park Marine Ranger Owen Govender on 082-881-7769 or 072112-8193