NOVA - Kingdom of the Seahorse
To many of us they are a figure of fancy on a par with the unicorn.  To scientists, however, the seahorse is a fascinating object of study.  Unlike other animals, in seahorses it is the male who gets pregnant and gives birth. But to populations around the world, the seahorse is something else again; considered a source of sexual prowess to proponents of traditional Chinese medicine, the magical seahorse is also a crucial source of income to fishermen in the Philippines who harvest and sell them to that burgeoning trade. Join biologist Amanda Vincent on a tour of the complex and beautiful world of the seahorseófrom an underwater enclave in Australia (where their unique mating dance is recorded on camera for the first time) to the bustling apothecary shops of Hong Kong, where heaps of harvested seahorses feed a steady market.  Then take a voyage to a small seaside village in the Philippines, where Vincent makes it her mission to come up with a conservation plan that can sustain human and seahorse residents alike.