Seahorses. 海馬
“Every continent but Antarctica has varieties of these fabled fish in their coastal waters. Worldwide, scientists currently recognize 47 seahorse species, the smallest no longer than a lentil, the largest the size of baseball glove…”
除了南極大陸，世界上其他各大洲的海岸都有海馬這種神奇的動物。全球，科學家能辨識的海馬共有47種，小至小扁豆大小，大至棒球手套，不一而足。
“…seahorses live in the most hammered marine habitats in the world, including estuaries, mangroves, sea grass beds, and coral reefs…human activity in the lagoon—from farming clams to dropping boat anchors—buries or rips up the sea grass beds that seahorses prefer.
But the hardest hit globally is unregulated fishing, which fuel a wide-reaching trade in dried seahorses. Stripped from the seabed as bycatch, the fish are sold around the world for traditional Asian medicine and trinkets…”
海馬的棲地容易被破壞。它們喜歡的棲地在河口、紅樹林溼地、海草繁殖的海床、珊瑚礁等等地方。
漁人在潟湖溼地挖掘蛤蜊、頻繁下錨、覆蓋或破壞海草海床等等行動，都會影響到海馬的生存環境。
海馬最大的打擊來自不受管制的漁業，對海馬乾的交易煽風點火。漁民在捕魚的時候，沒有選擇性地把海馬也一併撈了起來，被賣到全世界尤其是當成亞洲傳統藥物或小飾品……
“…During courtship, a pair rises and falls face-to-face in the water column, communicating with color changes and tail embraces. The couple may tango for days and remains seasonally monogamous.
And then the surprise: The female impregnates the male rather than the reverse, an evolutionary quirk unique to seahorses and their close relatives. She deposits her yoke-rich eggs into his belly pouch through a port on her trunk called an ovipositor. Several weeks later the distended male goes into body-spasming labor, ejecting dozens to hundreds of young into the current…”
在求偶的時候，一對海馬會面對面、尾部相卷，在水柱中改變顏色來互訴衷曲。它們就像跳tango一樣，會維持這樣的互動好幾天。海馬，是季節性一夫一妻的生物。
令人驚奇的是，在海馬的世界，懷孕的是海馬爸爸。海馬媽媽把她的蛋透過產卵器輸送到海馬爸爸肚子上的生殖袋裏。
幾個星期之後，肚子脹大的海馬爸爸的身體開始陣痛，把數量眾多的小海馬噴擠出來。
“When a seahorse needs to move from here to there, it swims upright with the frantic flutter of a dorsal fin at up to 70 beats a second and steer with a pair of pectoral fins. To stay put, the fish’s flexible tail grabs onto sea grass, coral or other fixed items on the seafloor…”
海馬的移動，透過拼命震動背鰭，每秒約70次的頻率，往上浮游，然後用腹鰭控制方向。要停下來，就用尾巴抓住海草、珊瑚或海床上的其他固定物就可以了。
“..Project Seahorse estimates that the by catch figure has surpassed 37 million seahorses a year, with more than 70 countries involved in their trade…Some fishers do target these animals…”
Project Seahorse 估計，每年被混在其他魚類一起被捕撈的海馬，超過3千7百萬尾，交易共牽涉到70個國家……有些漁民則專抓海馬……
“How will seahorses manage as habitat disappears and ocean temperatures and acidity continue to rise? It’s all a bit of guess right now…”
面對棲地的消失、海水溫度及酸度的昇高等等挑戰，海馬會如何應對呢？我們所知不多，頂多只是猜測而已。
“…experts say the key to maintaining seahorse numbers in most locales is through better global fisheries management, with severe limits and even bans on trawling…”
專家表示，要保育各個地區的海馬，必須透過更嚴𧫴的全球漁業管理，嚴格限制甚至完全禁止，對魚種無選擇性的拖網捕撈作業。
“…there is absolutely no way seahorses can sustain today’s level of exploitation,…. And people need to know: We are headed towards a world nearly bereft of these most extraordinary of fishes.”
海馬絕對無法𠄘受目前被捕撈和棲地破壞的速度。我們如果繼續下去，那麼我們終將永遠滅絕了海馬這種特別突出的海中生物。
*: David Littschwager, “Octopus, seahorse, jellyfish,” National Geographic Partners, LLC.
2023/8/9 seahorses 海馬 Damakey
