When the impotence drug Viagra was launched in 1998, few people could have foreseen the seismic impact its introduction would have on the existence of a peculiar-looking and sexually ambiguous member of the hippocampus genus.
Seahorses have for 600 years been used in traditional Chinese medicine as a cure for sexual dysfunction, served in rice wine, raw with herbs or in soup as a source of potency and virility.
Rather than diminish its appeal, however, Viagra appears to have spurred a huge increase in demand for impotence remedies using seahorses as a cheaper alternative to the western wonder drug. Twenty five million seahorses a year are now being traded around the world - 64 per cent more than in the mid-1990s - and environmentalists are increasingly concerned that the booming trade is putting the creatures at risk. More than a third of the world's trade comes through Hong Kong.
Last week, the creatures were added to a global watch-list of endangered species, obliging Hong Kong and 160 other countries and territories around the world to monitor the trade in seahorses and prohibit the sale of specimens under 10cm in length.
There is an irony in the use of seahorses as a means of boosting virility. Modern research has established that, if anything, the male of the species is more in touch with its feminine side than anything else in the animal kingdom.
Seahorses are unique in being the only species in which the male gets pregnant. The female injects eggs into the male's pouch, where the eggs are fertilised and carried for up to four weeks until they are born.