The mysterious underwater world comes to light with the project Tagus Seahorses, which revealed the surprising presence of seahorses in the Tagus River. With the support of SeaTheFuture platformthis project, led by biologist Gonçalo Silva, dives into the waters of the Tagus to study and protect these fascinating marine creatures.
The discovery of seahorses in Trafaria, first reported in 2019/2020, triggered an investigation into the population density and distribution of this small marine animal. Now, the project wants to expand horizons, exploring the Tagus estuary in search of more communities.
“Seahorses in the Tagus, the locals have known about them for many years, for generations. But for science it is relatively recent, around 2019/2020 we got this information from local communities and we started going diving to understand what we actually had it there. Until last year we did some work and were able to actually scientifically assess what the population density was. And the abundance we found there, in fact, turned out to be a special place, even in terms of population. its global distribution”, explains Gonçalo Silva, research biologist at MARE-Ispa.
The work was carried out along the entire coast of Almada, seahorses and navies were found along this riverfront of the Tagus, but only in Trafaria did “we found special characteristics”.
There are two species of seahorses, (O common seahorseHippocampus hippocampus, and long-snouted seahorse, Hippocampus guttulatus), which cohabit in the same space and their distribution is vast – from Norway to North Africa, also in the Mediterranean.
“Here in Trafaria we found a community that has been greatly impacted by human action, especially marine litter (…). In a medium-long term plan, we intend to have conservation actions in order to mitigate all these threats, especially connecting local populations because it is the local populations who will protect what is theirs and without them it is not possible to protect marine biodiversity”.
However, the journey is not easy. Gonçalo Silva highlights the challenges that need to be faced when working in the underwater environment, where visibility is limited and conditions are adverse. Not to mention the need for financing.
With SeaTheFuture’s commitment to supporting proven conservation projects, the collaboration between the Tagus Seahorses Project and the platform promises to drive efforts to protect not just seahorses, but the entire Tagus Estuary marine ecosystem.
The importance of telling stories that inspire
Assunção Loureiro, founder of SeaTheFuturehighlights the importance of projects like Tagus Seahorses in raising awareness and action for marine preservation.
“I think that the story of seahorses here in Trafaria and eventually along the Tagus, is also a story of hope. In such a degraded environment at the gates of a large city, I think this also conveys to us here a capacity for resilience of some species that can inspire.”
The platform financially supports projects with proven impact and works closely with local communities to ensure the sustainability of conservation actions. The need for knowledge and action becomes evident, as the lack of information about these species and their habitat represents a challenge for marine conservation.
“In this case we will support, we will try to raise funds to sponsor several dives along the Tagus estuary, precisely to carry out these censuses and understand if there are more individuals, if there are communities, what are the characteristics of these communities so that we can achieve then, eventually, design a plan for its protection”.
Through fundraising and community involvement, the Tagus Seahorses project aims to continue its mission of protecting seahorses and the marine environment where they live. Collaboration between scientists, organizations and the general public is essential to ensuring a sustainable future for these species and the ocean as a whole.
