18 MARCH 2013 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG A Bright Future for Sandfish Aquaculture Georgina Robinson1 Sea Cucumbers as a Global Trade Commodity Sea cucumbers, once dried and processed into bêche-demer, are a globally important trade commodity. Exploitation was initiated over 1000 years ago in Southeast Asia by Chinese traders, who encouraged coastal communities to collect the large, thick body-walled species of sea cucumbers and taught how to process them into bêche-de-mer (Conand 1990). Sea cucumbers are an ideal fishery resource and trade commodity: collection and processing methods are straightforward, requiring no specialized skill or equipment and, once processed, bêche-de-mer has a shelf life of many years. Historically sea cucumbers were exploited opportunistically as part of a multi-species fishery because, once processed, they could be stockpiled until traders passed through the region. Sea cucumbers are a traditional delicacy prized by Chinese and other Asian consumers for their dietary and curative properties (Conand 1990, Purcell 2010). In the international seafood trade, sea cucumbers are regarded as a specialty product that falls within the same niche market as other high-value luxury seafood products, including shark fin, fish maw and abalone (Fig. 1). Considered a delicacy and seen as a sign of prosperity, sea cucumbers are not a staple of the Chinese diet; rather, they are consumed at festivals, special occasions and banquets. Given recent increases in disposable income, demand by middle and lower income groups has increased, although additional factors are concomitantly reducing demand, such as decreasing family size and rising prices (Ferdhouse 2004). Global Sea Cucumber Fisheries Sea cucumbers are now exploited in 70 countries around the world in industrial, semi-industrial and small-scale fisheries that stretch from polar to temperate and tropical zones (Purcell et al. 2012). The expansion of trade and the rise in demand for bêchede-mer in the latter part of the twentieth century led to widespread over-exploitation of sea cucumber stocks and the collapse of some fisheries. In tropical small-scale fisheries, overexploitation has been accompanied by a number of warning signs, such as use of illegal fishing techniques and collection of juveniles. In the FIGURE 1. Bêche-de-mer at the dried seafood market in Hong Kong. Photo: G. Clayden.
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