That morning, the air was crisp. A strong wind kissed the woman’s face and teased the loose strands of her beloved black hijab. The roar of the boat’s engine thundered in her ears. As far as her eyes could see, there were only mangrove trees and clear blue water that carried the dark green boat beneath her. Calmly, she surrendered herself to wherever the sea’s current would lead. She drew in a long breath and let her dark eyes fall closed. Slowly, she stretched her right hand over the edge of the boat, her skin greeting the chill of the morning sea.
“This is the spot, Ma’am. We’ve arrived,” said a tanned middle-aged man.
Right beneath the boat, a pair of yellow-green seahorses swayed among the tall seagrass. Unaware that soon they would be studied by curious hands.
“Alright, let’s dive,” the woman said, her voice alight with excitement.
She fastened her diving gear, filling her lungs with one last deep breath before plunging into the pristine water. Minutes passed as she swam, yet not a single seahorse revealed itself. She and her team combed the seagrass tirelessly.
At last, one of the local fishermen raised his hand above the water, a tiny seahorse wriggling between his fingers. A burst of joy and exhilaration bloomed within her.
Her name is Masayu Rahmia Anwar Putri — a researcher at National Research and Innovation Agency Indonesia who has devoted her life to the study of seahorses. But her work is more than research; it is a mission to safeguard the seahorses that grace the waters of her homeland.
She climbed out of the water and onto the waiting boat. Joy bloomed in her chest as she held the beautiful seahorse in her hands. Together with her colleagues, she steered the boat back toward the coastal village. The fishermen’s catch was placed into a box filled with seawater. When they reached land, she stepped off the boat carrying the box and its tiny inhabitant, along with an aerator to keep the oxygen flowing. She brought the box to her humble lodging.
The seahorses they found would later be sent to the city for further study by the UNHAS team. Her mission now was clear, to discover and document as many seahorse species in Indonesia as she could.
“Indonesia has twelve seahorse species in total. We want to understand each one better,” she explained.
Seahorses, or what are often called by their Latin name Hippocampus, have many benefits. They are often used for ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine, aquarium ornaments, and dried curios.
According to research by Felipe P. A. Cohen,Wagner C. Valenti, Miquel Planas & Ricardo Calado Seahorses are currently experiencing an unprecedented level of anthropogenic pressure promoted by habitat destruction and increasing fishing effort to supply premium markets. The research is published in Reviews in Fisheries Science & Aquaculture journal.Whereas, the researchers continue, seahorses can be used as flagship species to foster mangrove conservation and decrease trawling fisheries. It also suggests that further scientific studies are needed to better understand and manage the populations of the most heavily traded seahorse species, as well as the need to monitor their vulnerability to emerging pollutants and climate change.
Tanakeke is one of the gifts God bestowed upon Indonesia. It is located in South Sulawesi. The mangrove forests surround the island. The forest serves as both protection and a source of livelihood for its inhabitants. The forest is a home for marine biodiversity surrounding the island, for example, shrimps, crabs, grouper, snapper, and seagrass. This island is also a cradle with a lot of seahorse. That is why Tanakeke became one of Masayu’s chosen destinations in her mission to study the secret lives of seahorses.
Masayu’s days in Tanakeke followed a quiet rhythm. She and her colleagues, Mochammad Zamroni and Dr. Syafiuddin, would wake before dawn, eat a simple breakfast, and head to sea. They would approach seahorse fishermen to learn about their practices. Some, however, were unwilling to speak, fearing that they would be reported to the authorities for illegal seahorse catches. Masayu had even encountered one “naughty” fisherman catching seahorses illegally. She had asked him a single question:
“Do you ever feel nervous doing this, Sir?”
“Hehehe… yeah, a little, Miss.”
Masayu realized that for some, the risk of arrest was worth a handful of money.
The lack of conservation awareness among many fishermen often brought her back to her early days, when she was just beginning her journey into the world of sea.
—
Masayu’s journey with the sea was never an easy one. It all started when she chose to take marine science in college. However, Masayu never expected she would face her two greatest challenges in life, swimming and biology. Ironic, isn’t it? A girl who chose marine science, yet disliked biology and could not swim.
Here comes the day she had dreaded from the moment she enrolled. If she could bend time, she would have skipped it entirely. The day all marine science students would face their first swimming class.
“Oh no… what am I going to do?” she thought.
Masayu couldn’t swim and today, this class would bear witness to her weakness.
“Masayu Rahmia! Your turn!”
The deep voice of her lecturer shattered all thoughts of her escape plan. Trembling, she shuffled toward the edge of the pool. She tightened her goggles, lowered her head, and kicked off the wall. For one brief moment, she floated. But almost instantly, she lost her balance. Panic surged. She tried to stand, but her feet couldn’t reach the bottom of the pool. She reached out for anything, but there was nothing to grab. Fear tightened her chest; every flailing motion only splashed more water into her face.
Was she… going to drown?
Then, hands. A friend’s hands pulled her up, lifting her toward the surface. Masayu gasped for air, her chest heaving, as she was guided to the pool’s edge. Sitting there, trembling and breathless, she tried to calm herself.
And in that dizzy, water-soaked moment, she wondered: Had she chosen the right path after all?
—
Then came the second semester, and a new challenge began. Diving class. It felt absurd. Swimming had nearly drowned her; how could she possibly dive? The thought of the class tightened her chest. Watching how none of the other female students had successfully dived only deepened her fear. Memories of that near-drowning moment haunted her.
Yet she knew she could not give up. Not now.
She took a deep breath, secured her diving gear, and—splash!—merged with the sea.
Suddenly, her body felt as though it belonged to the water. With a grace she never imagined she had, she dove. Her body danced beneath the blue water, gliding effortlessly. And in that moment, she became the only woman in the class to pass the diving test.
That moment taught Masayu that surrender was never the answer. Just like a seahorse, which cannot truly swim, yet survives by clinging tightly with its strong tail. Masayu endured, she might not be a natural swimmer, but with unwavering determination, she weathered every current that tried to pull her down. That victory ignited her will to study harder and conquer the courses that once felt impossible
—
Years ebbed and flowed like the tides. Through storms, through the pandemic, Masayu persevered. Seven years had passed since she first devoted herself to seahorses.
In the early days at BRIN (Research Center for Limnology and Water Resources, Research Organization for Earth Science and Maritime, National Research and Innovation Agency), she struggled alone, scavenging for data, venturing into unfamiliar lands all to know Hippocampus, the seahorse, more deeply. Little did she know, this journey would one day spark the birth of a national seahorse conservation effort.
In 2023, she attended a CITES workshop hosted by Project Seahorse and IUCN, two global organizations dedicated to marine and seahorse conservation. After hours of sessions and discussions, Masayu was approached by professor Amanda Vincent, the chair of the IUCN SSC Group. They exchanged small talk, then—an unexpected question came.
Masayu had just been invited to join the international seahorse conservation team. Even more astonishing, Masayu would become the only Indonesian in the organization. She immediately said yes. From that moment, she met more remarkable women: Mutia Fara and Vigna from Project Seahorse.
“Working with them, you feel the women’s power. All women, yet so brilliant and talented,” Masayu said.
—
Indonesia is the main supplier of seahorses for the traditional medicine market in Asia. However, on the other hand, these species of seahorses face the threat of extinction, which has led to their inclusion in the CITES Appendix II (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
Based on these conditions, research on seahorses needs to be intensified to gain a deeper understanding of their lifestyle patterns, reproductive cycles, and the factors that affect their survival in the wild.
From collaborating with the government to discuss seahorse conservation regulations to further researching existing seahorse species, Masayu is exploring how to continue preserving seahorses amidst an increasingly destructive climate. Just as seahorses struggle to fight the tide, Masayu is also struggling to combat worsening climate change.
It will take a long time to perfect seahorse conservation. There is much more work for her and her team to do. For Masayu, this is not the end of the journey, but rather the beginning of nature’s recovery.
