Amanda Vincent PHOTO: ROLEX

Saving seahorses

Biology professor Amanda Vincent finds herself in pretty exclusive company these days. The world's top seahorse expert, Vincent has just been named one of five winners of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, a coveted prize that carries with it a cash award of $50,000 U.S. Established in 1976 by the company famous for its very expensive watches (part of Vincent's award is a gold Rolex chronometer), the prizes are presented every three years to individuals "seeking to break new ground in areas that advance human knowledge and well-being." The other Rolex Laureates, all of them either scientists or activists, hail from Bolivia, France, South Africa and Sri Lanka. The five winners were selected from among 2,600 applicants from 130 countries. Vincent is the first Canadian to ever receive the Rolex prize. The blue ribbon selection committee that chose the winners included Canadian astronaut and neurologist Roberta Bondar, Nobel Prize winning Japanese physicist Leo Esaki and German chemist and molecular biologist Reiner Klingholz, science editor of Geo magazine. Intrigued by the reversal of gender roles that seahorses represent -- it's the seahorse males who become pregnant -- Vincent was the first scientist to don scuba gear and spend thousands of hours underwater studying the uniquely beautiful creatures in their natural surroundings. Like all other animals, male seahorses produce sperm and females produce eggs. Unlike other animals, the female transfers her eggs to the brood pouch on the male's tail. It is the male that fertilizes, protects and nourishes the eggs. Vincent documented the creatures' monogamous and unconventional mating habits. Demonstrating a sexual fidelity rare in the animal kingdom, most seahorse species form long-term couples. Each day, seahorse mates sidle up to each other and, with heads tucked coyly, begin a sensual dance, often changing colour as they move. They gyrate like this for six to 10 minutes every morning throughout the male's pregnancy. But Vincent hasn't won the Rolex Award for her science. Instead she has been cited in for her efforts to preserve seahorses. Specifically, it was Vincent's work in persuading a fishing village in the Philippines to conserve and manage seahorse populations, that caught the attention of the award's selection committee. Virtually all seahorse species are now on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List as "vulnerable," one category below "endangered." Seahorses are big business. The world trade in seahorses is conservatively estimated at more than 20 million fish a year. In Asia alone, nearly 16 million dried seahorses are traded annually, primarily for traditional Chinese medicine and aphrodisiacs. Seahorse-based remedies are used to alleviate a vast number of ailments -- including asthma, incontinence, impotence, skin problems and thyroid disorders. At least 40 countries trade in seahorses. With thousands of subsistence fishers around the world dependent on seahorses for a large portion of their annual income, the effects of overfishing have become evident. The co-founder of Project Seahorse, an international initiative aimed at protecting seahorses, Vincent decided to work with the fishing communities themselves. Instead of an adversarial relationship, she sought a partnership. A project was set up in Handumon, a village in the Philippines. "Seahorses are an important commodity in Handumon, About 20% of households rely on seahorses for approximately 40% of their annual income," says Vincent. Fishers reported that their seahorse catches had declined by 70% between 1985 and 1995. Vincent and her team of young Filipino biologists and social workers encouraged villagers to change their fishing methods. "We have believed all along that we should never impose our will on the villagers," says Vincent, "but they knew the fish were disappearing and were open to doing something about it." Vincent and colleagues from the Philippine-based Haribon Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources worked with the villagers to establish a 33-hectare marine sanctuary, vigilantly patrolled by villagers to ensure that seahorses are safe in at least one area. When pregnant males are caught in other locations, they're placed in meshed underwater cages. When it's time to give birth, the newborn seahorses are able to escape through the mesh. Juvenile seahorses are held in underwater corrals until they've doubled in size (and price). Harvesting fewer adult seahorses is healthier for the survival of the species than catching larger numbers of smaller and younger seahorses. Part of the program involves training the villagers in the skills they need to manage their seahorse stocks as a renewable resource. The project is producing results -- seahorse numbers are stabilizing. Villagers are also being encouraged to start seaweed farms and to grow their own fruits and vegetables in a bid to make them less dependent on the seahorse trade. The recently begun production of handicrafts will be expanded. Small-scale adventure tourism offers additional employment alternatives. "Hopefully, seahorse-watching will prompt a novel form of ecotourism," says Vincent. "Small numbers of tourists will be encouraged to take part in a 'real Philippine village experience.' Now, rather than catching seahorses, the fishers will be paid for pointing them out on night-time expeditions. "The timing of the Rolex Award couldn't be better," adds Vincent. "Current funding for this project will run out this year." Biodiversity management professor Nigel Leader-Williams from England's University of Kent speaks admiringly of Vincent's work in Handumon. "Had a heavy-handed conservationist come in and recommended total protection for the fish, this effort to conserve seahorses would have completely failed." Files from the Rolex Awards for Enterprise