Seahorses (for Steve)

Ok. Some interesting stuff about hippocampus. That's seahorses. There are 33 species of seahorse. 19 are considered vunerable to extinction. 1 is endangered. No one is sure about the other 13.
Seahorses form monogamous couples. They are unique in that it is the male that gives birth. Seahorses have fairly low birthrates and populations take a long time to re-establish.
Its estimated that over 70 tones of dried seahorses were traded in 75 countries in 2000. That's about twentyfour and a half million seahorses. Most are used in traditional medicine but a considerable number are used hobbies and crafts. There is also a large live trade for aquariums.
Whilst many species of seahorse can be bread successfully in captivity, so far all attempts at commercial farming have failed. This is mainly due to the seahorses diet, which demands large quantities of live food.
As of 2004 seahorses were protected By CITES. Any seahorses traded amongst the 160 signing countries must come from a sustainable source.
Trade in seahorses has not been banned as it was felt that an illegal trade would be harder to monitor and many small scale dependent fishers would be forced move onto harvesting alternate species which may be more endangered and harder to protect.

So. Hobbies and Crafts? What sort of weirdo freak thinks sticking a dead seahorse to a picture frame enhances it in any way? Are there really deranged creepoids who think dried seahorse earrings are attractive? I'm not a violent man, but any sicko who sends me a homemade card with a dried seahorse on it will be up for a big Christmas smack in the mouth.