New Indian Ocean Seahorse Species Unveiled After Century‑Old Misidentification

What Happened

A new seahorse species, Hippocampus amandavincentae, has been described from Indian Ocean waters, ending a century‑long taxonomic mix‑up of the spiny seahorse group. In 1856 Johann Jakob Kaup named the thorny seahorse Hippocampus histrix from Japanese samples, and it was long thought to range from the Red Sea to the Pacific. In 2019 two 16‑cm specimens caught as trawler bycatch at Thoothukudi Fisheries Harbour, Tamil Nadu, were examined for shape and DNA. The Zootaxa paper showed they belong to a distinct lineage, confirming that H. histrix actually includes three species: Pacific H. histrix, Arabian H. jayakari, and the Indian Ocean H. amandavincentae.

Reaction

Lead author Shalu Kannan of the Zoological Survey of India said the species differs by a shorter snout, five coronet spines instead of four, and stouter trunk spines, with a 6‑7 % genetic gap from its Pacific cousin. A. Murugan of the IUCN Seahorse Specialist Group noted that limited characters have caused widespread misidentification. Rajeev Raghavan, co‑author and assistant professor at KUFOS, highlighted that dive photos place the fish in Madagascar, Mozambique and the Seychelles, and a Red Sea sequence suggests overlap with H. jayakari. The new name honors Amanda Vincent, co‑founder of Project Seahorse.

Context

Seahorses are Schedule I protected in India but face heavy bycatch, with about 13 million taken annually from 2015‑2017, and illegal trade persists. Bottom‑trawl nets in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea threaten the newly identified species, prompting calls for better monitoring and habitat protection.