The entire genus Hippocampus was listed in Appendix II of CITES in November 2002. Implementation of this listing will begin May 2004. Environment Australia lists the conservation status of H. bargibanti as Data Deficient (Pogonoski et al. 2002). The Australian populations of this species were moved under the Australian Wildlife Protection Act in 1998, so export permits are now required. The permits are only granted for approved management plans or captive bred animals. Such management was transferred under the new Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act in 2001. Many states also place their own controls on the capture and/or trade of syngnathid fishes. Very few data are available for this species. Further research on this species biology, ecology, habitat, abundance and distribution is needed.