Organised illegal trade with links to China is affecting endangered marine species across the Puglia region. Investigation by Peter Yeung & Carlotta Dotto A hippocampus guttulatus seahorse in the Mare Piccolo. Photograph: Mare Per Sempre Every night dozens of wooden boats loaded with fishing equipment pass under the Punta Penna bridge and into the protected waters of the Mar Piccolo, a unique saltwater lagoon in the southern Italian port city of Taranto. Trawling nets, cage traps and even homemade bombs are deployed into the moonlit waters by those in search of lucrative prey. “It’s like my father picking lemons and making limoncello at home,” says Luciano Manna, a local activist who has been monitoring the illegal activity for five years. “It’s too easy.” The lagoon is so rich in biodiversity – with long-snouted seahorses, prized mussels, rare seaweeds, greater pipefish and loggerhead sea turtles among its native species – that marine biologists call it a “living eco-museum”. But an organised illegal wildlife trade with links to China is quietly devastating the Mar Piccolo and many other coastal habitats across the Puglia region, with experts warning that endangered marine species are being pushed to the brink of extinction. Michele Gristina, who works for Italy’s Institute for Coastal Marine Environment, has been studying the seahorses in Taranto for nearly 20 years. Once one of the largest concentrations in Europe, the seahorse population collapsed between 2016 and 2017. The only explanation, he says, is poaching. “We tried to explain it [the decline] with environmental reasons such as the spread of pollution, water temperature or oxygen depletion, but it wasn’t the reason,” says Gristina. “People have seen there are a lot of seahorses and that money can be made, and they have begun to hunt them. In my opinion, seahorses along Italy’s coasts are seriously endangered.” A fisherman on the Mar Piccolo. Photo: Luciano Manna In November five people said to “specialise in the use of explosive devices” were arrested by the Taranto coastguard in an operation that uncovered several kilograms of explosive material and TNT at the city’s mooring dock. The previous month the coastguard seized 228 plastic buckets of sea cucumbers – weighing four tonnes – hidden in cargo ready to be shipped to Greece from Brindisi, one of the region’s largest ports. “This was part of a bigger activity,” says Giorgio Castronuovo, commander of the Taranto coastguard, who is leading a criminal investigation into wildlife trafficking. These were just two in a series of discoveries, despite a ban on the trade of sea cucumbers introduced in February 2018 by the ministry of agriculture, food and forestry policies that acknowledged the “invaluable” role of the species in breaking down bacteria in the bio-marine system. “What we can say is that the Italian market does not have a demand for these species, so it must be international,” says Castronuovo. “Until a few years ago, there was no interest. When the demand started from abroad, fishing began.” Activist Luciano Manna has received threats for the work he does. Photo: Peter Yeung Manna, through the Italian investigation website Veraleaks, uncovered evidence that in addition to formalised trafficking transactions the species are sold on the Chinese social media site WeChat, where products are advertised as coming from “Italy, the Mediterranean”. They are also sold by third-party sellers, who claim to offer “wild capture” through online retailer Amazon. Tencent, the owner of WeChat, said in a statement: “We are vigilant against unscrupulous parties making unauthorised use of our platforms and services to pursue illegal activities. We encourage users to report illegal and inappropriate activities.” A spokesperson for Amazon said: “All sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who do not will be subject to action including potential removal of their account. The product in question is no longer available.” Authorities say local fishermen have close ties with Chinese traffickers who transport species of seahorses and sea cucumbers in huge numbers, by air or by sea, often passing through Greece on the way to south-east Asia. The practice, they say, is happening all along the Puglia coast at fishing villages and towns. The coastguard says that on the bottom rung, local fishermen receive about €0.80 (£0.70) per kilogram for sea cucumbers. For the middlemen who clean, prepare and store the creatures, the value increases to €7 a kilogram. By the time sea cucumbers enter the Chinese market, prices rocket to between $200 and $600 per kilogram. Seahorses can be worth $700 a kilogram in Asia at the end of the chain, according to the coastguard. A sea cucumber found in the Mar Piccolo.