Global analysis of sea cucumber fisheries:
effectiveness of management measures and
extinction risks
Steven Purcell
National Marine Science Centre, Southern Cross University, Australia
Presentation overview

Sea cucumber fisheries

Results of global review of stock status and management
In the journal: Fish and Fisheries 14: 34–59

Implications for fisheries management and conservation

Extinction risk in sea cucumber fisheries

Potential measures to mitigate extinction
Are sea cucumber fisheries significant?

Fished from Mediterranean and East Africa
through Indo-Pacific to Central America

Insatiable market demand from China

Often the most valuable invertebrate fishery
export from countries


Recently more valuable than all fish
exports in New Caledonia and Tonga
Our data indicated probably >3 million
people fishing sea cucumbers globally
Status of Pacific sea cucumber stocks?
Global sea cucumber production (t dried)
Sea cucumber fisheries
20000
Aquaculture production
Capture fisheries
15000
10000
Captures of
high-value
species
5000
0
1950
1960
1970
1980
Year
1990
2000
Scale of fishing

Most Indo-Pacific fisheries are small scale

Few fisheries were for subsistence only
Number of species harvested

1 to 47 species exploited in each fishery

Temperate species often mono-specific
No. Species
Harvested
=1
= 10
= 20
= 30
Yields per fisher vs participation rate

Landings per fisher in tropical fisheries (2004-2008) related
significantly to participation rates.
2 – 10 fishers 100-km-2
Number of regulatory measures used &
Enforcement capacity
No. of
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Key management measures used
Significant difference in management measures
used:
Under-exploited
Moderatly-exploited
Fully exploited
vs.
2D Stress: 0.15
Over-exploited
Depleted
Multivariate analysis
Management measure
% dissimilarity
contribution
Enforcement
9.7
Capacity control
8.9
Limited entry requirements
8.7
Rotational harvest closures
8.3
Number of species harvested
7.9
Status
Rotatl. harv.
Under expl.
Mod. expl.
Fully expl.
Over expl.
Depleted
Gear restr.
Enforc.
Cap. control
Quotas
Limt. entry
Licensing
Size limits
Seas. cls.
No. reg. meas.
Moratorium
No. Species
Reserves
Key analysis conclusions
 Sea cucumber fisheries fare worse than most fisheries globally.
 Sustainability of troubled sea cucumber fisheries will only come from
the adoption of radically different approaches to management
Key changes needed for fisheries management
 Enforcement capacity is paramount to fisheries sustainability
 A set of at least 4 or 5 key regulatory
measures is needed (but keep it simple!)
 The most successful regulatory measures:
 limited entry rules,
 fleet capacity regulations,
 restrictions on the number of harvested
species, and
 licensing requirements.
 Allowing all species to be harvested opens
the door to ‘opportunistic exploitation’
Measures to mitigate the loss of biodiversity
Key points:
 no correspondence between the
presence of marine reserves and the
sustainability of fisheries
 marine reserves representing just a
small proportion of habitats will not
suffice as a sole management measure
in sea cucumber fisheries

International agreements and instruments may help safeguard loss of
biodiversity in over-exploited or severely depleted fisheries (e.g.,
CITES listing and IUCN Red List)
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species - assessment
workshop on sea cucumbers, Colombia 2010
 Evaluated extinction risk against IUCN criteria for 377 sea cucumber
species (order Aspidochirotida)
 Relied on reports, research articles and country stock assessments to
determine stock declines and distributions
Extinction risk categories – IUCN
Findings from Assessment workshop

7 species were Endangered

9 species were Vulnerable

A high proportion (68%) of species were classed as Data Deficient

High-value species tended to be most at risk of extinction
Findings from Assessment workshop

Low-income countries in the tropics have the highest number of
threatened sea cucumber species
Key management implications of IUCN assessment

International market demand is a key driver of extinction in some
invertebrate fisheries, like sea cucumbers

Fishery managers should pay special attention to managing high-value
species conservatively:
 Species-specific catch quotas, or
 Species-specific bans, or
 Exclude them from lists of allowable species

CITES may help control trade, but CITES listing of sea cucumbers has
so far proven difficult
What would listing of certain species on CITES
Appendix II or III mean?
Appendix III
Provides assistance to countries in the enforcement of national trade
regulations.
• Export permit required.
• Only animals obtained in compliance with national laws (of the
source country) can be traded.
Appendix II
Same as Appendix II plus the following:
• Export permits should be granted only when “a Scientific Authority
of the State of export has advised that such export will not be
detrimental to the survival of that species”. In other words,
countries must demonstrate that the trade is non-detrimental
to the survival of the species in the wild.
New Identification guidebook on sea cucumbers
Intended for:
 Customs officers – dried product
 Fishery officers – live animals