[Coral-List] Contents of Coral-List digest "Move to regulate Florida sea cucumber driven by Asian"

Sven Uthicke S.Uthicke at aims.gov.au
Thu Mar 6 18:48:39 EST 2014


Dear Doug and other coral listers,

Thank you for forwarding the news about the cucumber fishery in Florida. As Walther pointed out in his response, it is a story similar to that we are so familiar with all over the Indo-Pacific Ocean since many decades now; in case of the GBR even going back several centuries. The fact that fisheries are now spreading into 'non-traditional;' regions such as Florida, the Caribbean or even the Mediterranean is just another sign for the growing demand in China and depletion of most traditional stock. There are very few examples of a sustainable fishery management, and the few documented cases of overfishing sadly include two of the most iconic marine areas, the GBR and the Galapagos Island Marine Park. Although management has not changed much over recent decades, scientific and public interest has grown and lead to several publications on holothurian fisheries and management in excellent journals over the last few years. Several detailed reports on individual regions can be found on the FAO website. Below, I would like to take to opportunity to point out a few publications, hoping these are of interest to scientists and managers. In addition, it is worthwhile to point out that recently the IUCN has conducted an assessment of all holothurian species, for your convenience below a list of species regarded 'vulnerable', Most of these are tropical coral reefs species, and the majority occurs in the Indo Pacific Region; about 9 of those occur on the GBR. Most of the listed species are still fished in the Indo-Pacific with only minor regulation or under 'pseudo-management' without independent research and independent stock assessments, relying on fisheries data alone.


Actinopyga echinites (Deep Water Redfish) 
Status: Vulnerable A2bd ver 3.1 
Pop. trend: decreasing 
Actinopyga mauritiana (Surf Redfish) 
Status: Vulnerable A2bd ver 3.1 
Pop. trend: decreasing 
Actinopyga miliaris (Harry Blackfish) 
Status: Vulnerable A2bd ver 3.1 
Apostichopus japonicus (Japanese Spiky Sea Cucumber) 
Status: Endangered A2bd ver 3.1 
Pop. trend: decreasing image
Apostichopus parvimensis (Warty Sea Cucumber) 
Status: Vulnerable A2bd ver 3.1 
Pop. trend: stable 
Bohadschia maculisparsa 
Status: Vulnerable D2 ver 3.1 
Pop. trend: unknown 
Holothuria arenacava 
Status: Vulnerable D2 ver 3.1 
Pop. trend: unknown 
Holothuria fuscogilva 
Status: Vulnerable A2bd ver 3.1 
Pop. trend: decreasing 
Holothuria lessoni (Golden Sandfish) 
Status: Endangered A2bd ver 3.1 
Pop. trend: decreasing 
Holothuria nobilis (Black Teatfish) 
Status: Endangered A2bd ver 3.1 
Holothuria platei 
Status: Vulnerable D2 ver 3.1 
Pop. trend: unknown 
Holothuria scabra (Sandfish) 
Status: Endangered A2bd ver 3.1 
Pop. trend: decreasing 
Holothuria whitmaei (Black Teatfish) 
Status: Endangered A2bd ver 3.1 
Isostichopus fuscus (Brown Sea Cucumber) 
Status: Endangered A2bd ver 3.1 
Pop. trend: decreasing 
Stichopus herrmanni (Curryfish) 
Status: Vulnerable A2bd ver 3.1 
Pop. trend: decreasing 
Thelenota ananas (Prickly Redfish) 
Status: Endangered A2bd ver 3.1 
Pop. trend: decreasing

Another useful resource is the FAO ID guidebook: http://www.fao.org/docrep/017/i1918e/i1918e00.htm , hard copies can be requested from Alessandro Lovatelli with the FAO.
 
*	Anderson SC, Flemming JM, Watson R, Lotze HK (2011) Serial exploitation of global sea cucumber fisheries. Fish and Fisheries 12:317-339
*	Eriksson H, Byrne M (2013) The sea cucumber fishery in Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park follows global patterns of serial exploitation. Fish and Fisheries 
*	Purcell SE, Polidoro BA, Hamel J-F, Gamboa RU, Mercier A (2014) The cost of being valuable: predictors of extinction risk in marine invertebrates exploited as luxury seafood Proc. R. Soc. B. 2014 281 1781 20133296; doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.3296 
*	Purcell SW, Mercier A, Conand C, Hamel JF, Toral-Granda MV, Lovatelli A, Uthicke S (2013) Sea cucumber fisheries: global analysis of stocks, management measures and drivers of overfishing. Fish and Fisheries 14:34-59


Dr Sven Uthicke
Senior Research Scientist
Australian Institute of Marine Science
Team leader "Multiple pressures on coastal ecosystems"
e-mail: suthicke at aims.gov.au
w: 0747534483
m: 0447825604

-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of coral-list-request at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Sent: Wednesday, 5 March 2014 3:00 AM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Coral-List Digest, Vol 67, Issue 3

Send Coral-List mailing list submissions to
	coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
	http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
	coral-list-request at coral.aoml.noaa.gov

You can reach the person managing the list at
	coral-list-owner at coral.aoml.noaa.gov

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Coral-List digest...", e.g., cut and paste the Subject line from the individual message you are replying to. Also, please only include quoted text from prior posts that is necessary to make your point; avoid re-sending the entire Digest back to the list.


Today's Topics:

   1. Fwd: Move to regulate Florida sea cucumber driven by Asian
      appetite (Douglas Fenner)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2014 10:10:25 -1100
From: Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
Subject: [Coral-List] Fwd: Move to regulate Florida sea cucumber
	driven by Asian appetite
To: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Message-ID:
	<CAOEmEkFaOr7HXhmVOCh902fm9MsC5mAfX_tL41rQQ7A=ziCnJw at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I'm posting this for Walt Smith.   Cheers,  Doug

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Walt Smith <walt at waltsmith.com>
Date: Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 9:49 AM
Subject: RE: [Coral-List] Move to regulate Florida sea cucumber driven by Asian appetite
To: Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>


Hi Doug,
An interesting article and rings a bell. Being from both Tonga and Fiji for the past 25 years I have watched the cucumber trade come and go out of Tonga and then come back again based on greed and the cost of a license to collect them that went straight into the pockets of the corrupt officials. Several years ago they issued more than 55 licenses at the cost of more than $50,000 each and last year they had few takers because the stock had been depleted so badly it wasn't worth it to spend the money and time to "try" and collect them.
In Fiji the trade has finally reached that level  of over extraction.
Actually the industry has existed here for more than 100 years but the last
20 competitive Chinese exporters drove the market to near extinction.
The Fiji government has just passed a law to prohibit scuba gear in their collection and are diligent in enforcing it. However one of the main reasons for the law was to protect the Fiji diver from death and paralyses. Almost every family in the villages (in the island groups where they are collected) has at least one family member who is either dead or crippled for life due to this trade. Reason? They are now only found in very deep water ....
dangerous to unskilled divers. Also contributing to the greed is the price.
This is what struck me so hard reading that article. Mr. Lee is seriously pulling the wool over someone's eyes or the reporter got it wrong. In Fiji a diver is paid between $70 - $100 per kilo of beche-de-mer depending on specie. One large specimen can weigh up to 2 kg and rarely less than 1 kg.
The exporters are among the richest Chinese in Fiji. I once asked one of the exporters, that I was observing selling a pallet load to overseas buyers, what that pallet is worth and I was told "more than $80,000 USD!
Of course it is possible that the Florida specie bring less market price but hard to believe since he stated they were being used to present as "gifts"
to Government officials. You have to ask yourself that if you wanted to present this sort of gift to bribe someone wouldn't it be the best "gold label" you could find? .... just sayin Walt

-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
[mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Douglas Fenner
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2014 7:14 AM
To: coral list
Subject: [Coral-List] Move to regulate Florida sea cucumber driven by Asian appetite

This story ran recently in many Florida newspapers.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/wildlife/move-to-regulate-florida-s
ea-cucumber-driven-by-asian-appetite/2165865

The article includes some humor, saying that "This is a story about sex, supply and demand, global trade, corruption, government regulation and one of the ugliest sea creatures in Florida."  (obviously written to try to get people to read the article)

and that it "a long and lumpy invertebrate that looks like a cross between a diseased zucchini and an overinflated eclair."

But it may be a more serious issue than that.   Cheers,  Doug



Cheers,  Doug

--
Douglas Fenner
Contractor with Ocean Associates, Inc.
PO Box 7390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA

phone 1 684 622-7084
_______________________________________________
Coral-List mailing list
Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list


------------------------------

_______________________________________________
Coral-List mailing list
Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list

End of Coral-List Digest, Vol 67, Issue 3
*****************************************

--  
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information contained within this transmission is for the
use of the intended recipient only and may contain confidential
and/or legally privileged material and/or material the subject
of copyright and/or personal information and/or sensitive
information that is subject to the Privacy Act 1988. Any review,
re-transmission, disclosure, dissemination or other use of, or
taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by
persons or entities other than the intended recipient is
prohibited. If you have received this email in error please
notify the AIMS Privacy Officer on (07) 4753 4444 and delete
all copies of this transmission together with any attachments.
------------------------------------------------------------------------



More information about the Coral-List mailing list