Removing these brooding animals from the wild populations may impact on local populations of seadragons. Economically and environmentally, it makes sense to limit collection and export of this species until we know more about them. Seadragons have a specific level of protection under fisheries legislation federally and in most Australian states where they occur, such that it is illegal to take or export them without a permit. It is only recently that the threats to marine biodiversity have been recognised. These threats relate indirectly or directly to development of coastal areas and pollution or exploitation by humans.
Many people think of fish in the ocean as an inexhaustible resource.
Most of the research on fish in Australia is on commercial species and little is known of the lives of even the most common non-commercial species. Divers who know their local areas and favourite dive spots can often see changes but are often a quiet minority. By making divers familiar with recording observations, the seadragon monitoring program aims to encourage divers to be pioneering researchers, since virtually nothing is known about many marine creatures, in the wild or captivity. In southern Australia marine protected areas for threatened species relate to sea-lions and more recently in South Australia proposals of habitat protection for Southern Right Whales. There are however a number of fish and invertebrate species and their habitats that may be threatened, but there is little information available to assess their status or define areas for habitat protection.