Another Project Seahorse team member will be conducting the first Central American surveys of fisheries and trade in seahorses and other marine medicinals during late 1999. The lack of formal record-keeping on marine medicinals means that research involves hundreds of market surveys and interviews with fishers, buyers, exporters, importers, wholesalers, retailers, consumers, and related experts. Local biologists or social workers assist our Western researchers by interpreting during visits, providing extra cultural information, and verifying notes. Research protocols were established during the 1993 and 1995 investigations of the trade in seahorses and pipefishes. Sources of information are found through prior knowledge, written material, or word of mouth.
Information is cross-checked within interviews and within and across trade levels.
As well, data collected in the field are compared with the few available Customs records. Team members particularly note changing consumption patterns, distinguishing by species, morph, size, sex, reproductive status and colour, where appropriate. Project Seahorse biologists also record the extent to which different human social groups are dependent on the trade culturally and economically. Findings from 1999 will be compared with findings during the trade surveys in 1993 and 1995, then used to prompt conservation responses through policy, education and development initiatives. They will also contribute to our compilation of a global directory of marine species used in traditional medicine and our research on taxonomy and biogeography of seahorses.