Taxonomic notes: The name H. coronatus has often been applied to H. sindonis in the past. Morphometric (Lourie et al. 1999) and genetic (Mukai et al. 2000) research suggest that these two are not the same species. Mukai et al.’s (2000) data also suggest that H. coronatus is distinct from H. mohnikei.

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Hippocampus coronatus are found among Sargassum, close to shore (Masuda et al. 1984). The breeding season of this species is June to July (Masuda et al. 1984).


This species may be particularly susceptible to decline. The limited information on habitat suggests they inhabit shallow sea-grass beds (Masuda et al. 1984) that are susceptible to human degradation, as well as making them susceptible to being caught as bycatch. All seahorse species have vital parental care, and many species studied to date have high site fidelity (Perante et al. 2002, Vincent et al. in review), highly structured social behaviour (Vincent and Sadler 1995), and relatively sparse distributions (Lourie et al. 1999). The importance of life history parameters in determining response to exploitation has been demonstrated for a number of species (Jennings et al. 1998).

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Project Seahorse trade surveys conducted between 2000–2001 indicated that the trade in H. coronatus appears to be quite small (B. Kwan, unpublished data). It is only found in Japan (from Hokkaido to Kyushu; Nakabo 2000), and while it is not targeted in any fishery, it may be caught incidentally in other fisheries (B. Kwan, unpublished data).

The entire genus Hippocampus was listed in Appendix II of CITES in November 2002. Implementation of this listing will begin May 2004. Further research on this species biology, ecology, habitat, abundance, and distribution is needed.

• 4.3 Awareness & communications

There are no published data about population trends or total numbers of mature animals for this species. There is very little available information about its extent of occurrence or its area of occupancy. There have been no quantitative analyses examining the probability of extinction of this species. As a result, the assessors have insufficient data to properly assess the species against any of the IUCN criteria.

Hippocampus coronatus previously was listed in 1996 as VU A2cd under old criteria. This assessment was based on suspected past declines in occupancy, occurrence and habitat, as well as on potential levels of exploitation. In reassessing the species under the new criteria and with greater taxonomic understanding we find that no appropriate data on biology and ecology, habitat, abundance or distribution are available for this species. Further research is needed. Assessed as Data Deficient under the new criteria.

• Baillie, J. and Groombridge, B. (eds). 1996. 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. pp. 378. International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
• IUCN. 2003. 2003 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on 18 November 2003.
• Jennings, S., Reynolds, J.D. and Mills, S.C. 1998. Life history correlates of responses to fisheries exploitation. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 265:333-339.
• Lourie, S.A., Vincent, A.C.J. and Hall, H.J. 1999. Seahorses: an identification guide to the world's species and their conservation. Project Seahorse, London, U.K.
• Masuda, H., Amaoka, K., Araga, C., Uyeno, T. and Yoshino, T. 1984. The fishes of the Japanese Archipelago. Tokai University Press, Tokyo, Japan.
• Mukai, T., Tsuihji, T., Sato, T., and Morisawa, M. 2000. Mitochondrial DNA divergence in the seahorse Hippocampus coronatus (Syngnathiformes: Syngnathidae), collected from Sagami Bay. Japanese Journal of Ichthyology. 47: 139-143.
• Nakabo, T. (ed.) 2000. Fishes of Japan, with Pictorial Keys to the Species. Tokai University Press. Tokyo, Japan.
• Perante, N.C., Pajaro, M.G., Meeuwig, J.J. and Vincent, A.C.J. 2002. Biology of a seahorse species Hippocampus comes in the central Philippines. Accepted by Journal of Fish Biology. 2001.
• Vincent, A.C.J. and Sadler, L.M. 1995. Faithful pair bonds in wild seahorses, Hippocampus whitei. Animal Behaviour 50: 1557-1569.
• Vincent, A.C.J., Evans, K.L., and Marsden, A.D. 2005. Home range behaviour of the monogamous Australian seahorse, Hippocampus whitei. Environmental Biology of Fishes 72: 1–12.