Hippocampus erectus is traded dried as traditional medicine (TM), curios and live for aquariums (Vincent and Perry, in prep.). This is a popular aquarium fish in North America. In Florida alone, thousands of H. erectus are collected each year for the aquarium trade (P. LaFrance, unpublished data). Hippocampus erectus is Brazil’s 6th most important marine ornamental export (Monteiro-Neto et al. 2000). In addition to being sold as TM, H. erectus are sold as curios in Mexico along the Caribbean coast (J. Baum, unpublished data). Hippocampus erectus are often brought up as bycatch by shrimp trawling operations in Florida (Baum et al. 2003), and in Mexico seahorse population declines are attributed to indirect harvesting by the shrimp trawl fishery (J. Baum, unpublished data). In Central America H. erectus are brought up in the shrimp trawls in Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and are exported as TCM, or sold on both coasts as curios (J. Baum, unpublished data). Similarly in South America H. erectus are among the bycatch of shrimp trawls in Mar del Plata, Argentina (L. Magnasco in litt. to A. Vincent 23 May 1999), and in Brazil (I. Rosa and J. Baum, unpublished data).

The preferred habitat of H. erectus is also declining due to coastal development, pollution, and increased sedimentation. For example, in NE Brazil the development of shrimp farms has destroyed much of the coastal mangrove habitats where seahorses live (J. Gomezjuardo in litt. to A. Vincent Sept. 1999).