Incidental Catch

What I found in my search for the elusive seahorse.

- Tanvi Vaidyanathan

A group of bewildered fishers in Odisha gathered around my field assistant, as he described a seahorse. Before he or I could get a word in, a passerby joined the group and excitedly said, “It looks exactly like a horse on land, and runs on the bottom of the ocean.” It took me a couple of minutes to understand what he was saying in Odiya, but by then the damage was done. Before I could explain to the fishers that seahorses do not run on the ocean floor, the conversation had overstayed its welcome. This incident, while funny, highlights why my work of determining the status of seahorses in India is important.

Over the last year, I travelled across nine coastal states and two union territories along mainland India to obtain a better picture of the prevalent seahorse trade. As I learnt very quickly, trying to understand the status of seahorses was not an easy task. Whether it was dealing with field assistants who have never seen a seahorse, or fishermen reluctant to talk to women, there were many hurdles to cross. Despite this, I managed a fairly successful field season.

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