8 Million Seahorses Sequestered In Port Callo In Lima, Peru

The Peruvian authorities have seized about eight million of seahorses at the Port of Callao in Lima, Peru, which is the nation's largest seahorse haul on June 7, 2016. It was bound for Asia.

Previously, the authorities also confiscated 16,000 dried seahorses that were abandoned on a street near an airport in Lima four years ago. People sell the seahorses as souvenirs and some use them in traditional medicine. They have been wanted because some people believe, particularly in China that seahorses are sources of potency and virility for 600 years. They pulverized them into powder and added to soup or rice wine, as reported by the Taipei Times.

The recently seized eight million seahorses are worth almost $4 million on the black market. According to National Geographic, an estimated 24 million are taken from the wild and traded each year. The Peruvian authorities arrested the captain, who was connected with smuggling these little creatures.

Seahorses belong to genus Hippocampus. The word Hippocampus is a Greek word wherein the word "hippos" means "horse" and the "kampos" means "sea monster." The seahorse is known for his head and neck, which resembles the horse. It also has segmented bony armor, a curled prehensile tail and an upright posture.

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, there are more than 40 species of seahorses. About 11 species of seahorses are endangered and protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The mating of seahorses is different from other marine creatures. The female seahorses deposit her eggs into a pouch on the male's front-facing side. The males fertilize them and carry them in their pouch until they hatch. The male seahorses usually give birth at night. He is then ready for the next batch by morning when his mate returns. A male seahorse can release an average 100-1000 young for most species and low as 5 for the smaller species. Some can release as high as 2,500. The seahorses do not raise their young after birth.