I'll admit, I've never tried acquiring a species that has been listed on CITES before, so I don't entirely understand the impact. Perhaps someone more familiar can straighten me out so here is my question. Why does everyone thing the CITES listing will stop trade of seahorses for the aquarium market? They were not banned, just restricted. But, not only that, the restrictions were simplified by making a minimum size limit on seahorses. So you will only be able to buy a certain size seahorses. This of course will limit the supply, but I would assume also make it easier for exporting countries to continue to export since they won't have to set up expensive population monitoring to decide what to allow for export.
CB seahorses should be even less impacted. The breeder should only need to prove his or her seahorses are captive bred to export. Sure, this may be a harrowing process, especially for a home breeder, but exporting, period, would be. And if a commercial breeder is thinking about not breeding seahorses because of being certified for export being too difficult, then I would have to assume they don't have much business sense as the demand is so high and the supply so low for much sought after captive bred seahorses. Australian bred seahorses had to deal with tons of paperwork before this, and that didn't stop South Australian Seahorses or Ocean Oddities from needing bigger facilities to keep up with the demand.
Additionally, locally caught seahorses should still be available. This includes H. reidi, H. erectus, and H. zosterae. Now, the local fish and game might put the kibosh on seahorse collecting, but so far I have seen no evidence of that. As it is, getting wild caught seahorses from local waters is a better idea anyway, because they are less stressed from less time in transit. Additionally, the three species above are often considered the best species for wild caught because of their easy of care. H. reidi are difficult to feed frozen, but otherwise do well in the home aquarium. H. erectus are tough old birds that easily switch to frozen. They're also the species that ocean rider has developed into most of their brightly colored strains. And H. zosterae can be kept easily in small aquariums as long as you're willing to hatch brine shrimp daily.
Now, I don't think that CITES is the perfect solution for protecting seahorse. I agree that it is silly that seahorses got so much attention while other species that are possibly more threatened aren't because they're not cute and horse-like. But I'm also not hearing any better solutions proposed for protecting them. Yes, some asian countries have opted out, unfortunately. But should CITES have just pulled the seahorse listing from appendix II because 4 countries did (only three being of any real importance as Norway doesn't have much overall trade in seahorses)? Or do you protect them from the countries that are following it still, some of them major sources of seahorses like the Philippines, and major consumers like China.
If I'm wrong in any of my assumptions, please let me know. But so far I have seen SO much misinformation about seahorses being added to appendix II, and people getting bent out of shape about incorrect assumptions that I have almost taken a pro-CITES stance because of it. As early as last year, fish stores were saying seahorses were banned or required a license to own. Wholesalers started to say they weren't available in January. And everyone has their own theory (myself included) as to how this is going to play out, but I haven't heard much actual fact.
