SEA HORSE SURVEY
In preparation for the Campaign Bintan MPA, we are planning to do a seahorse restocking, so we conducted a survey and a visit to the north coast of Bintan Island to gather information about seahorses and people who catch seahorses. We visited Pak Bedu's house in Sebong Pereh. Pak Bedu is one of the fishermen who catches a seahorse in Sebong Pereh. According to Pak Bedu, January to May is the season for seahorse fishing. When the sea horse season arrives, many fishermen and people are looking for seahorses. Seahorse is one of the fishery commodities with high selling value, the price per kg can reach 7 million Rupiah for a dry seahorse. But in recent years, the price of seahorses has become cheap, so that local people are no longer interested in catching seahorses. Currently, Pak Bedu makes coffee that is unique because it is made from sea horses, according to Pak Bedu this coffee has healthy properties. Last month, Pak Bedu received equipment from the government to develop this seahorse coffee product.
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After that, we visited Pak Iwan's house in Sakera. Pak Iwan is also one of the local residents who catch seahorses. Besides that, Mr. Iwan also breeds sea horses at his house. With the equipment obtained from government assistance, he breeds seahorses that are currently pregnant. But Pak Iwan has problems in feeding the baby seahorses so that in certain stages the sea horse died.
Based on the information we got from Pak Bedu and Pak Iwan, the types of seahorses that are often found on the northern coast of Bintan Island are the horse hippocampus, hippocampus comes, and hippocampus spinosissimus. Today we are very happy because we get a lot of information and knowledge about sea horses. We hope that all of Pak Bedu and Pak Iwan's efforts can be successful in the future.
