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FAO FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE TECHNICAL PAPER No. 520
Managing sea cucumber fisheries
with an ecosystem approach
by
Steven W. Purcell
FAO Consultant,
National Marine Science Centre
Southern Cross University
Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia
Edited and compiled by
Alessandro Lovatelli
Fishery Resources Officer (Aquaculture)
Fisheries and Aquaculture Resources Use and Conservation Division
FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department
Marcelo Vasconcellos
FAO Consultant,
Institute of Oceanography
Federal University of Rio Grande
Rio Grande, RS, Brazil
and
Yimin Ye
Senior Fishery Resources Officer,
Fisheries and Aquaculture Resources Use and Conservation Division
FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department
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Contents
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that are not mentioned.
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ISBN 978-92-5-106489-4
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© FAO 2010
Purcell, S.W.
Managing sea cucumber fisheries with an ecosystem approach.
Edited/compiled by Lovatelli, A.; M. Vasconcellos and Y. Yimin
FAO Fisheries and AquacultureTechnical Paper; 520. Rome, FAO. 2010. 157p
ABSTRACT
Sea cucumbers are important resources for coastal livelihoods and ecosystems. At least
60 species are fished from more than 40 countries and most of the harvests are processed
then exported to Asian markets. Sea cucumbers generally appear to have slow rates of
population turnover and are easily harvested in shallow waters in the tropics. With retail
prices of up to USD300–500 per kg (dried), exploitation has often been indiscriminant
and excessive. Overfishing in recent years has led to local extinction of high-value species
in some localities and prompted closures of many national fisheries to allow stocks to
recover and to allow more sustainable management plans to be established. Apart from
a few developed countries, only a small number of sea cucumber fisheries are currently
being managed sustainably.
Sea cucumber fisheries differ greatly in the scale of the fishing activities, status of
stocks and the capacity of the management agency. Consequently, some management
measures will be appropriate in some fishery scenarios but not others.
This document
presents a logical framework to assist fishery managers in choosing an appropriate suite
of regulatory measures and management actions and elaborates on the uses, limitations
and ways to implement them.
This document contains five main sections. The first provides an overview of
the biology and ecology of sea cucumbers, the international market for beche-demer
market, types of sea cucumber fisheries and their global status (i.e. population
abundance). The second section summarizes fisheries management principles and
approaches, with an emphasis on the ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF). The third
section provides the “roadmap”, by way of instructions, flow diagrams and tables, to
lead fishery managers along the path of choosing management measures appropriate to
their fishery. The fourth and fifth sections discuss the application of each regulatory
measure and management action – with Examples and lessons learned boxes to illustrate
management problems and potential solutions from various fisheries.
Improved management of sea cucumber fisheries is an imperative. It will be best
achieved by applying an EAF, in which multiple regulatory measures and management
actions are applied in full consideration of the sea cucumber stocks, the ecosystems
in which they live and the socio-economic systems that drive exploitation. The
commitment of governments, fishery managers and scientists to develop, apply and
strictly enforce EAF will be crucial to sustaining sea cucumber populations for current
and future generations. |
Preparation of this document (Download 
406 Kb)
Abstract
Contents
Contributors
Abbreviations and acronyms
Executive summary
Background
1. Foreword (Download 754Kb)
2. Sea cucumber fisheries
3. Fisheries management principles
and approaches (Download 356 Kb)
3.1 The Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries
3.2 The Precautionary Approach
3.3 The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries
3.4 Management objectives, indicators and reference points
3.5 The management process
3.6 A decision-making process for chosing the right tools
4. Defining regulatory measures
and actions – A roadmap (Download 152 Kb)
5. Regulatory measures (Download 434 Kb) - (Download 446 Kb) - (Download 1,215 Kb) - (Download 324 Kb)
5.1 Size limits
5.2 Gear limitation and development
5.3 Effort and capacity control
5.4 Catch quotas
5.5 Market chain licensing and reporting
5.6 Temporal closures
5.7 Area-based measures
6. Implementing management (Download 332 Kb) (Download 565 Kb) (Download 639 Kb) (Download 696 Kb)
6.1 Information for management
6.2 Institutional requirements
6.3 Legal requirements
6.4 Assign acountability
6.5 Enforcement
6.6 Education and communication with stakeholders
6.7 Improve quality of procesing through training
6.8 Restocking
7. Conclusions (Download 385 Kb)
8. References and further reading
9. Glossary
10. Annexes
Annex 10.1 Main species of sea cucumbers commercially exploited and traded
around the world
Annex 10.2 Examples of issues to take into account when considering regulatory measures and actions for implementing management
Appendixes
Appendix 1 - Fishery-dependent landing data sheet
Appendix 2 -
Data sheet for recording landings of fishers
Appendix 3 - A logsheet used in the sea cucumber fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
