Aquaculture of seahorses Full-scale commercialization Raw materials for herbal medicine

Aquaculture of seahorses Going into full-scale commercialization Raw materials for Kampo medicines July 29, 5:43

The Shizuoka Chamber of Commerce and the Tokai University Faculty of Oceanography have jointly researched the cultivation of seahorses as raw materials for herbal medicines, which will be fully commercialized in collaboration with a company in Tokyo.

The commercialization will be the cultivation of a species of seahorse, "Black Horse", which is being researched by Professor Nobuhiko Akiyama of the Faculty of Oceanography, Tokai University in Shizuoka City.

Seahorse is a raw material for a herbal medicine that has nourishing and tonic effects.In China, about 1 kilo/200 dried animals are traded at high prices of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yen, but there is a risk of extinction. The CITES, which regulates the international trade of certain wildlife, classifies them as organisms that require certain procedures for export.

Professor Akiyama has been working on research to increase the number of seahorses collected in Japan and overseas in the aquarium in collaboration with the Shizuoka Chamber of Commerce for 10 years, saying that aquaculture can prevent overfishing.

It is said that more than 99% of seahorses die in the natural world by one month after birth, but Professor Akiyama's research group succeeded in raising more than 60% by controlling the water temperature and food.

Professor Akiyama said, “If humans can secure what they need by aquaculture, they will not have to get from the wild. I want to make an effort not to lose even one species every minute as various creatures are extinct.” It was

Utilizing the results of this research, the Shizuoka Chamber of Commerce announced a plan to build a full-scale seahorse aquaculture facility on a remote island in Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, in collaboration with a company in Tokyo on 22nd this month.

In cooperation with local fishery cooperatives, it will take about three years to build facilities, and in the future, we will spread the technology to Southeast Asia where seahorses are actively caught, aiming to balance resource conservation and industry. ..

Kimio Sakai, President of the Shizuoka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, "This is a business that cannot be established in the private sector, and it is one of the achievements that we were able to commercialize it through industry-government-academia collaboration.