Successful Use of Geochemical Tools to Trace the Geographic Origin of Long-Snouted Seahorse Hippocampus guttulatus Raised in Captivity.

ABSTRACT: The global market of dried seahorses mainly supplies Traditional Chinese Medicine and still relies on blurry trade chains that often cover less sustainable practices targeting these pricey and endangered fish. As such, reliable tools that allow the enforcement of traceability, namely to confirm the geographic origin of traded seahorses, are urgently needed. The present study evaluated the use of elemental fingerprints (EF) in the bony structures of long-snouted seahorses Hippocampus guttulatus raised in captivity in two different locations (southern Portugal and Northern Spain) to discriminate their geographic origin. The EF of different body parts of H. guttulatus were also evaluated as potential proxies for the EF of the whole body, in order to allow the analysis of damaged specimens and

SUBMITTER: Cabral AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8225026 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature