Sea Cucumber Fishery

A sea cucumber fishery harvests holothurians, dried and exported as beche-de-mer (trepang) chiefly to Chinese markets, where high-value teatfish and sandfish command premium prices. Animals are taken by hand on reef flats, by free-diving, and by hookah diving in deeper water, and because they are slow-moving, late-maturing, and easy to collect, fisheries serially deplete one species and area after another. Three teatfish species (Holothuria fuscogilva, H. nobilis, and H. whitmaei) were listed on CITES Appendix II at CoP18 in 2019, in force from August 2020, requiring sustainable-trade non-detriment findings. Management uses size limits, seasonal closures, quotas, and rotational area closures, but illegal harvest is widespread.