PHUKET: Etymological failures rarely re-direct a person’s life as drastically as a easy false assumption did for topflight seahorse expert and marine biologist Lindsay Aylesworth.
Lindsay was ushered into the higher echelons of seahorse analysis while engaged on her doctorate together with her adviser Amanda Vincent – recognized because the main expert within the subject – and Project Seahorse at the University of British Columbia. Lindsay seems to complete her PhD by the tip of the yr. However, her fateful ‘mistake’ was made about eleven years prior, when she was an undergraduate studying abroad at James Cook University in Australia.
For the final project of a marine conservation course, students had to sign up to put in writing a conservation standing report a couple of particular marine animal. The options had been listed beneath scientific pseudonyms on the professor’s door. Enter the hippocampus.
“So you needed to go and join this random Latin title, and who is conscious of the Latin names of fish as an undergraduate? I would argue nobody. Okay, perhaps some individuals do, however not me,” Lindsay says.
“So there were some apparent ones, Delphinus delphis – oh, it’s a dolphin. All these had been taken, but I saw hippocampus. It sort of sounds like hippopotamus. I wonder if there are hippos that stay within the ocean?”
Uncomplicated can now confirm that hippos do not live within the ocean.
However, Lindsay wasn’t far off, a minimum of in relation to the scientific names. For each hippopotamus and and hippocampus, ‘hippos‘ means horse in Ancient Greek. However, ‘potamos‘ means river, and ‘kampos‘? Well, that’s ‘sea monster’. Given her knack for marine adventures, it is most likely more applicable that Lindsay ended up with the ocean monster.
“I simply realized, that happened in 2004. I’ve been on this seahorse kick for eleven years now.”
Lindsay first came to Phuket after her pals survived the 2004 tsunami. They had been diving off Phi Phi when the wave washed over the island. She arrived with supplies and then became one of many first in a group of divers that have been certified by PADI as instructors following the catastrophe.
Two years later, Lindsay made contact with Dr Vincent. However, she didn’t be part of Project Seahorse, recognized as the global chief on seahorse research, until 2012. Then, in 2013, Project Seahorse was asked by International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) to kind a specialist group to advise on seahorses. Lindsay made the cut.
The group has a sweeping mission statement: “To promote the long-term conservation of the world’s syngnathiform [seahorses, pipefishes and their relatives] and gasterosteiform [sticklebacks and their relatives] fishes through the illumination and alleviation of threats to wild populations and their ocean habitat.”
Also in 2013, Lindsay joined a team from Project Seahorse which served as consultants to the Hong Kong authorities to do an evaluation of the influence a controversial beach re-nutriment venture might have on seahorse populations in the area. Final assessment: there could be minimal influence, despite the environmentalists’ issues.
“We also got here up with a mitigation plan to attempt to find all the seahorses in the area that was going to be developed and then move them to a similar habitat and monitor them. It could be an excellent chance for some scientific research about transferring seahorses from one habitat to another and likewise permit the beach to be developed,” Lindsay says.
Finding the seahorses – renown for his or her camouflaging skills – would have to be sorted out by the federal government at a later date. However, Lindsay’s most up-to-date journey introduced her nose to nose with a man who has a sixth sense for seahorses – Paul Ferber.
“He type of has this premonition of where to search out seahorses. You bounce in the water with him and literally inside seconds or minutes discover seahorses, which in comparability with a few of the research we’ve done in Thailand is amazing,” Lindsay says.
“Paul runs a bunch referred to as Marine Conservation Cambodia and so they have been working in Cambodia for I believe the final five or ten years monitoring seahorses at a number of the coastal islands. They have been requested to do so by the government.”
Lindsay was there last week to train Paul and his group about tips on how to give seahorses fluorescent ‘tattoos’ in hopes of monitoring their numbers and curbing illegal fishing.
In Paul’s tow to ‘base camp’ on Koh Sep, off the coast of Kep and within swimming distance of Vietnam, Lindsay noticed how severe the group was about protecting the thick, vulnerable seagrass beds within the area.
“They are working with the local fisheries employees to assist them increase local enforcement and patrols of the area. There are a lot of Vietnamese boats that are available and illegally fish in these areas in Cambodia.
“I wasn’t quite expecting to be a part of any of these patrols on my trip on the market. One minute there was a Cambodian guy chilling out in his board shorts and tank top, the following minute he’s placing on his official Fisheries Department uniform and unwrapping this tremendous rusty AK-47, as a result of they saw an illegal fishing boat and wished to cease the boat and ask them to go away.”
Rough monsoon seas added to the wild nature of the events as they unfolded earlier than Lindsay and a group of British undergraduate college students becoming a member of Paul for some terrestrial research.
“There was a lot going on and at one point they had been like ‘keep your hands inside the boat, stay low guys, stay low’. Eventually, the fishermen pulled up the online and dumped the fish back into the ocean.”
It hasn’t been all seahorses for Lindsay. She’s done the turtle rodeo, hand launched 1-meter-long juvenile lemon sharks, jumped for dugongs… the list goes on. Here in Thailand although, Lindsay is entering the ultimate phases of a three-pronged seahorse sustainability challenge, which included on-location diving for seahorses, interviewing fishers and researching the seahorse export business (story here).
“Project Seahorse and I are wrapping up a project with the Fisheries Department to assist them assess the sustainability of their seahorse exports.
“We at the second are on the last analysis stage and reporting back to stakeholders and colleagues phase, which is why I’m back in Phuket, where I based mostly myself for the initial research phases of the challenge.”