I N V E R T S

Increasing technical skills supporting community-based sea cucumber production in Vietnam and in the Philippines (ACIAR - Sandfish)

(Funding agency: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research)

Overfishing and poor fisheries management of sea cucumber fisheries in many parts of the tropics has created severe declines in sea cucumber stocks, and even the closure of some fisheries. This has had major impacts on income-generation opportunities for coastal communities.

However, strong demand for dried sea cucumbers from China and South-East Asian markets, where they can make $200-$400 per kg, provides significant sea cucumber mariculture opportunities for coastal communities throughout South-East Asia, northern Australia and the central Pacific.

There have been significant developments towards commercial-scale hatchery and grow-out technologies for sandfish (one of the more valuable tropical sea cucumber species).

However, improved technical skills are required to increase reliability of current culture methods and support increased production capacity of community-based sandfish culture in Vietnam and the Philippines.

This project will further develop technical skills and improve the reliability of culture methods.

Culture conditions and environmental effects on metabolite production, dermal morphing and regeneration in Stichopus cf. horrens (DOST - S. horrens)

(Funding agency: DOST - Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development)

Uncontrolled and non-selective harvesting of sea cucumbers has lead to the depletion of high value species such as Holothuria scabra and Stichopus horrens. Hatchery culture can facilitate recovery of natural populations, but guidelines must be established to mitigate risks. The project aims to infer ecologically-meaningful management units based on integrated information on species biology, ecology, population genetic connectivity, and biophysical modelling. Manipulative experiments examining the species biology were carried out in Bolinao Marine Laboratory, while tissue sample collection, habitat surveys, and fishery-dependent surveys are being conducted across specific sites in the different biogeographic regions of the country.