The Minister of the Sea this week dived into one of the newly created seahorse sanctuaries in Ria Formosa, Algarve, where animals were released last November.
The invitation came from conservation photojournalist João Rodrigues (Chimera Visuals), who documented the minister's visit to be included in two ongoing photojournalistic projects for international magazines. Star e Green Peace.
Ricardo Serrão Santos was accompanied by the researcher from the Centro de Ciências do Mar do Algarve, Jorge Palma, who took the opportunity to show on the spot the minister «both the seahorses and the work that we have developed there», namely the artificial structures placed to recreate natural habitat and where they can settle and a seagrass transplant area.
According to CCMAR, «the excellent conditions of the water made it possible to locate the animals and assess the conditions of the place where four months ago a group of 60 seahorses were released, most of them born in captivity, in what was the first repopulation action in this place. ».
In 2001, a study revealed that the Ria Formosa was the area with the highest density of seahorses in the world, but a census taken in 2018 pointed to a decrease of more than 90% of that community in the last decade, seriously compromising their conservation, and making them species at risk of local extinction.
On March 3, 2020, were created, by the Ria Formosa Natural Park (PNRF)/Instituto de Conservação da Natureza e Florestas (ICNF), two Protection Areas to safeguard the seahorses of the Ria Formosa, whose population has dropped sharply in the last 20 years.
The two zones, one in Olhão – located in the revo to the east of the Culatra nucleus (Ilha da Culatra) – and the other in Faro – north of Cabeça do Morgado, (Geada) – they cover an area of approximately 0.61 square kilometers where the circulation of all vessels is prohibited.
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