Nearly five million smuggled seahorses were seized globally by authorities over a 10-year period, Canadian researchers found, warning it's only the "tip of the iceberg" in an illegal trade that is likely far larger in scale.

To track how widespread the issue is, researchers at the University of British Columbia pored over public seizure reports and news stories shared between 2010 and 2021, finding nearly 300 seizures of seahorses involving 62 different countries.

In total, the five million seahorses seized were worth an estimated $29 million ($21 million US), they said in a study recently published Conservation Biology .

Dried seahorses are often sought for use in traditional medicine. The most common destinations for them are China and Hong Kong, the study found, but they can be pur

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