Saving the Sea Cucumber in the Philippines

High prices, unregulated harvests drive sea cucumber to extinction
Cesario R. Pagdilao, Special To The Manila Times 14 Jun 09;

SEA cucumbers are facing extinction in the Philippines. A multimillion industry in sea cucumbers, more popularly known abroad as beche-de mer or trepang, it is the country’s fourth priority fishery commodity and eighth among its top fishery exports.

The threat of extinction is the result of increasing world demand, high prices and unregulated harvests.

Of the 1,200 species known worldwide, about 100 species are found in the country of which 25 species are commercially exploited.

Philippine sea cucumber fisheries have been in existence since the 18th century.

Recent discovery on the ecological, pharmaceutical and economic values of the sea cucumber, and the lack of fishery and trade management, entices the poor to overharvest.

All these conspire to threaten the sea cucumber natural population.

In 2002, urgent concern for the sea cucumber was raised at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The CITES, with more than 150 signatory countries, lists Holothuridae (Putian) and Stichopodidae (Hanginan) sea cucumbers as threatened with extinction.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has drafted an Administrative Order to implement conservation efforts to limit and regulate harvest of wild sea cucumber based on size limits.

The BFAR National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI), through its stock assessment program, conducts national surveys and stock assessments of sea cucumber.

This puts pressure on the economies of major exporting countries such as Indonesia, the largest seller, and the Philippines, the second. Other sources are Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Australia.

US$150 per kilo

Sea cucumber is one of the most important and highly priced seafood products in the international market. The highest prices are paid for tropical sea cucumber species Holothuria scabra (sandfish) at US$110 a kilogram and Holothuria versicolor (golden sandfish) at US$130 to US$150 per kg.

The product is mostly exported in dried form but also, in rare cases, as fresh and frozen items. The main market is the oriental Asians of Chinese origins, especially Hong Kong, the largest importer, and Singapore.

Hong Kong, the major Philippine market, packages and processes the sea cucumber further then sells it to China at a higher price.

“For the past decade, sea cucumbers have been underutilized due to their unacceptability in the domestic market and undeveloped export market,” says Rosario Ragaza of NFRDI’s Post Harvest Research Division. “Today, the pressure of expanding food requirements led to its exploitation and utilization.”

The Philippine export of sea cucumber from 2004 to 2006 totaled 3,532 tons valued at P756.85 million. The 1,162 metric tons harvested in 2006 was worth P 255.20 million.

About 30 of the 100 sea cucumber species in the Philippines are regularly collected.

Fresh sea cucumbers are gathered by hand either near shores or by skin diving or diving with the use of an air compressor to reach deeper areas. They are then placed in an open container with clean seawater to keep the sea cucumber alive while collecting and chilling them for transport.

Fishers then sell them to traders for immediate consumption or for processing and export.

“With the increasing popularity of sea cucumber as a health food purportedly able to cure arthritis and some types of cancer, other forms of high value processed sea cucumbers are expected to receive good market acceptance and preference in local and international markets,” says Ragaza.

The resulting low prices are brought about by high moisture content, poor packaging, poor hygiene and sanitation practices and inconsistent quality of the final products. “If these problems were solved, we would be able to achieve export competitiveness,” she says.

“One or few financiers can fund several local traders, creating competition among traders and depressing the buying price of sea cucumber,” says Aurelia Luzviminda Gomes of the University of the Philippines Mindanao. “Ultimately, the local fishers are the real losers.”

Little is known of the ecology and biology of the sea cucumber (e.g. timing of spawning, larval development, juvenile ecology, population distribution and abundance).

This led to problems in understanding the life history of sea cucumber for management of natural populations in fishery and conservation terms.

The lack of knowledge also forms a barrier to intensive hatchery-based activities.

Thus in 2007, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) provided funds to improve the management and production of sea cucumber resources for sustainable development. The research project is being undertaken by the University of the Philippines (UP) Marine Science Institute in Diliman and UP in the Visayas in Iloilo.

In 2008, UP Mindanao joined sea cucumber research also with funding from DOST. The Australian Center for International Agricultural Research through World Fish also provided funds for sea ranching and restocking of sandfish.

The research focuses on the grow-out culture of sand fish specifically on broodstock development and management, refinement of hatchery protocols for cultivable species, reproductive biology and ecology studies of commercially important species other than sandfish and sea ranching.

(Dr. Cesario R. Pagdilao is the deputy executive director of the Philippine Council for Aquatic Marine Research and Development).

Hookah diving and sex in the full moon
Paul M. Icamina, The Manila Times 14 Jun 09;

DAVAO CITY: For the first time, experimental hatchery has reared the first batch of sea cucumber larvae that will hopefully encourage sea farming and replenish depleted stocks in the wilds.

Since August 2008, the first production of sea cucumber outside its natural habitat occurred in two hatcheries, including the 6,000-square-meter laboratory in Barangay Binugay that started operations last January by applying low-technology from Vietnam.

That is, eggs are collected when sea cucumbers spawn in their natural setting. They are put inside a tank and fertilized by drops of sperm. They feed on ordinary micro-algae.

The hatcheries are part of a research project of the University of the Philippines Mindanao (UPM). The idea is to produce juveniles in the hatchery then re-introduce them to their natural habitat.

Sea cucumbers favor the sandy-muddy bottom where seagrass thrives. The sea cucumbers are nocturnal and burrow under the sand during the day.

Adapting well up to 24 parts per thousand salinity, they thrive in temperatures of 26 degrees to 30 degrees Celsius and in sites down to a depth of 30 feet.

The UPM experimental hatchery inside the sprawling High Ponds resort owned by the JV Ayala Group of Companies (no relation to the Makati conglomerate) speaks well of the market potentials of sea cucumber.

Another UPM hatchery is located inside Alson’s, an intensive tilapia operator.

“We have the science, how about the technology?” asked Alson’s farm Manager Ramon Macaraig.

“We need private sector interest,” said Science Secretary Estrella Alabastro in a recent visit here. “Unless you transfer it to the private sector, nothing will happen even after a century of research and development.”

She plans to convene a technical committee to see how quickly the technology of hatchery breeding can be commercialized.

Saving the sea cucumber

Before anything else, researchers want to restock and save the sea cucumber.

The first batch, about 2,000 juveniles each weighing about three grams, has been released inside sea pens in Barangay Bato, Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur. It was done painstakingly, piece by piece, each sea cucumber placed a little underneath the sandy and muddy bottom.

Three 78-square-meter Australian-designed sea pens are the high-tech, high investment part; it is being popularized as well in Tasmania and the Solomon islands in the Pacific.

All these have come about after the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) sent in mid-2008 marine researchers to a sandfish sea cucumber hatchery and grow-out facility at the Research Institute for Aquaculture 3 in Nha Trang, Vietnam.

The knowledge gained was immediately applied in Davao. In a three-year national program, UPM’s role is to assess and then enhance sea cucumber stock. The UP Diliman Marine Science Institute’s Bolinao Marine Laboratory has also initiated pilot scale hatchery.

After a year, the laboratory harvested sea cucumber weighing 200 to 250 grams; the ideal commercial weight is 500 grams. In contrast, Vietnam harvests after just eight months.

The objectives are to mitigate the problem of overfishing through sea farming and ensure benefits to small fishers.

UP Visayas in Iloilo, which concentrates on seed production and stock enhancement in Guimaras Island, has released its first batch in to the wilds as well.

All are part of the three-year national program on sea cucumber culture and resources management supported by the DOST Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research Development (PCAMRD).

“The objective is to fast track the development and refinement of resource management and sea farming and improve the local sea cucumber industry,” says Dr. Ruth de Guzman, a marine biologist who oversees the UPM research.

“So far, we have identified 20 species in Barangay Bato, Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur. Community-based stock assessments have been conducted. Other species with commercial value have been identified,” she says.

The mass spawning observed during a lunar phase in Bolinas has not been seen in Mindanao; more observations this year will be made. In two other species, natural spawning was observed three nights after the first quarter moon. Another species spawned three nights after the full moon.

Trade

The sea cucumber is one of the most important marine resources of the country.

Trade in beche-de-mer, the dried sea cucumber product, dates as far back as the Sultanate days in Mindanao. Today, the Philippines is the second major exporter next to Indonesia.

Dried sea cucumber now fetches P4,500 per kilogram; this is just 10 percent of the original weight.

No wonder, wild populations are being threatened by over harvesting and continuous degradation of their habitat.

As a result, the bigger individuals are found in deeper waters and harvested by hookah diving, so-called because divers stay longer under the sea by using long tubes connected to an oxygen compressor aboard a boat.

Generally, sea cucumbers occupy the narrow continental shelf (e.g. seagrass beds, coral reefs), which is vulnerable to stresses from human activities.

Besides being high-priced food items, here and abroad, sea cucumbers are claimed to have other important uses such as the natural equivalent of Viagra.

Ecologically, they are responsible for the extensive shifting and mixing of the seabed and recycling detritus. Hence, they are called the “earthworms” of the sea.

They can also determine the habitat structure of other species.

Sea cucumbers are also known as a cure for arthritis, wounds and high blood pressure. Indeed, health supplement sea cucumber products are available locally.

What were problems 20 years ago remain the same issues today. These include local depletion, lower catch, absence of inventory, uncontrolled harvesting, absence of regulating guidelines and management plans.

Only hatchery technology is making some progress to preserve sea cucumber populations.

Currently, the family Sticho-podidae is listed as threatened with extinction by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.

To sustain sea cucumber resources, the country needs to identify a management program.

It needs to identify and assess species used in trading and there should be a regulation as to size and sexual maturity of sea cucumbers bought and sold.

Due to depletion and competition, middlemen are not very selective of the sizes. They buy everything, even the small ones, says de Guzman.

Because of the very high prices abroad, middlemen stimulate local demand, in turn causing the over-harvest of an already decreasing resource, says UPM Research Assistant Lance Concepcion.

Fisher folks only get a small part of the profit
The Manila Times 14 Jun 09;

WIDESPREAD reduction in sizes, volume and a shift to lower valued species are reported by sea cucumber fishers, traders and researchers.

The absence of standardized assessment methods, trained field researchers and funds resulted in the lack of initiatives to make an inventory of the sea cucumber resource in every municipality or, at least, at the regional level.

The unavailability of Philippine atlas of sea cucumbers and inaccessibility of field guides that include taxonomic identification contribute to the problem.

There is also limited knowledge of the reproductive biology and other aspects of commercially important trepang species. This knowledge is necessary for developing appropriate management interventions.

Resource managers and stakeholders lack understanding and a sense of responsible fishery practices. This leads to improper and inadequate management of this very important resource.

Currently, fisher folk engaged in the fishery of sea cucumbers do not benefit enough. They only get a minuscule part of the profit derived from their products since they lack information on market prices, production data, proper post harvest handling and processing, and grow-out technology.

The major issue in the grow-out culture of sea cucumber is the lack of technical know-how.

There are grow-out initiatives in a few places. But overstocking, harvest at low-value sizes, and attempts to enrich the sediment with feeds can further accelerate resource depletion.

As of now, studies on grow-out culture are being developed for only a few species. And there are still many gaps in baseline information about the biology and ecology of the targeted species for culture.

Moreover, research and development are considered as second priority only, thus the limited financial support from the government and funding agencies.

Environmental factors such as the degradation of habitat, depletion of the resource and inadequate supply of juveniles for grow-out are the other concerns.

Illegal fishing, increased fishing pressure, coastal development, weak law enforcement, and lack of resource management are some of the causes of these concerns.

The feasibility of farming sea cucumber should be considered given the limited experience and access to credit, especially of poor farmers.

The quality of the final products is often found to be inconsistent. Poor quality is indicated by high moisture content, presence of toxic substances, and contamination of pathogenic bacteria.

To ensure sustainable sea cucumber fisheries, the degradation of habitat and resource depletion /declining catch brought about by illegal fishing/increased fishing pressure, coastal development/siltation, weak law enforcement and lack of political will, should be addressed.

Technical know-how in relation to species, area, production, reproductive biology of commercial species and packaged technology should be made accessible.

The unavailability of juveniles for grow out due to the absence of commercial hatcheries should be also be addressed.

Overwhelming hurdles, even for basic research
The Manila Times 14 Jun 09;

FOR sea cucumbers, there is no scientific names for many species that have otherwise common names in Cebuano, Tagalog and Ilocano.

No molecular studies have been made. Knowledge of reproductive biology of commercially important species is lacking.

In order to develop a management strategy, there is a need to collect more baseline information on available wildstock, basic biology/ecology, fishery, and so on.

The list seems endless. Data on population status, impact of overexploitation in traditional and nontraditional fishing grounds are lacking.

Assessment methods are not standardized. No inventory has been done per regions, province and municipality. There is no Philippine sea cucumber atlas.

Not only is funding limited, qualified expertise is lacking to conduct basic research on depletion; destructive fishing method; land based pollution; deterioration of habitat; and unregulated harvest methods.

A nationwide assessment of sea cucumber resources has been done in 14 areas to address the lack of extensive research on the taxonomy, fisheries, and population dynamics, according to the Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI).

The NFRDI has gathered data that could lead to understanding the life history strategy and fundamental biology of sea cucumbers. These data will be used for the establishment of size limits as well as delineation of sea cucumber areas.

Spatial distribution of various species was determined. Medium to high value and low value commercially important species were identified.

As a decisive step to mitigate the observed widespread dwindling of wild stocks and the impending threat of local-species extinction, the National Forum on Sea Cucumber Fisheries Management was held last year in Dagupan City.

The forum discussed the biology of sea cucumbers, their ecological and economic importance. It also discussed a review of the status, management initiatives and practices related to sea cucumber fisheries and culture, production, post harvest processing and trade and marketing.

The forum recommended the development of a comprehensive national management plan. In policy formulation, conservation should be integrated with protected marine areas.

The meeting agreed that training courses on taxonomic identification, stock enhancement and grow-out culture and proper post harvest work (handling, sorting, processing) are needed.

Environmental issues include habitat degradation and resource depletion or declining catch; illegal cyanide and dynamite fishing; coastal siltation; increased fishing pressure; and weak law enforcement (there is no regulation regarding harvest size).

Sea cucumber farming is uncertain because technical know-how is lacking. The supply of juveniles for cultivation is limited. There are no commercial hatcheries and no reserved area for wild source.

It was recommended that fishery laws should be strongly enforced and that there be clear management guidelines and policies regarding, for example, permit issuance and licensing, identification and zoning of potential sites for culture.

Because of the absence of a formal marketing system in the local trade of sea cucumber products, traders have no absolute idea of the export market.

Pricing is based on trust and loyalty. A rapid market system study and value chain analysis is clearly needed.

When sea farming means conservation
The Manila Times 14 Jun 09;

ONLY three major exporting countries have no national management or regulatory measures regarding the sea cucumber: the Philippines, Malaysia and Micronesia.

Other countries encourage sustainable sea cucumber fisheries through quota, size limit, gear restriction, limited licensing and so on. Others employ mariculture, sea ranching operation and restocking programs.

“Adapting the minimum size limit established by Papua New for sea cucumber species in trade is the most practical and highly recommended management strategy for the Philippines,” says Ludivina Labe, Marine Fisheries Research Division, National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI).

“The data from Honda Bay in Davao suggests that occurrence of species is seasonal. It was observed that most of the freshly caught sea cucumbers are smaller than the minimum size limit [in terms of length] set by Papua New Guinea,” says her colleague Lea Katherine Acera.

Sagay City’s initiative, in Negros Occidental, can serve as a model to other municipalities.

About nine common species of sea cucumber are found in the Sagay Marine Reserve. Only the Neocucumis proteus, or “bola-bola” species is largely collected from August to February.

Harvest permits are given to the highest bidders who should be local residents with boats registered in the city. Buyers come from Cebu, Cadiz and Bacolod.

The Sagay environment office determines the schedule and location of harvest within the reserve. It limits the number of boats, method of harvest (bottom trawl is strictly prohibited), duration of harvesting, and the amount of harvest per day (maximum of 1,000 pieces sized less than 2 inches in diameter).

Harvests are reported to the weighing (buying) stations for monitoring purposes. The city government and barangays share the income.

Despite these regulations being in place, catches have declined consistently in recent years although marine scientists don’t know why, according to Terence Paul Dacles, executive director, Northern Negros Aquatic Resources Advisory Council.

Research collaboration has been initiated between the marine reserve and the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center-Aqua-culture Department and UP-Visayas, both based in Iloilo.

Another successful conservation move is evident in Danao Bay, Misamis Oriental.

As recently as the 1980s, there were so much sea cucumbers in Danao Bay shores that people slipped when they stepped on them, says Exequiel Laureano Jr., Danao Bay resource management Office, Baliangao, Misamis Occidental.

Traditionally, the sea cucumber is a very important food during typhoons when it substitutes for fish.

More intensive harvests started in 1983 when traders were buying sacks of dried sea cucumber that were sold in Zamboanga City. By the next year, the high demand and price encouraged even outsiders to haphazardly harvest the sea cucumber, resulting in its rapid depletion around the bay.

Even when harvesting was limited to locals, it came to the point when it was very hard to find sea cucumbers. Consequently, in 1986, the municipality banned its harvesting and selling. By 1991, a sea cucumber sanctuary was established.

Eventually, sea cucumber populations increased to the abundance of the past. So much so that in 1997, Laureano recalls, poachers entered the sanctuary and harvested sacks of sea cucumbers.

Farming

Elsewhere, sea cucumber farming have mixed blessings.

Hermino Paredes grows about 10,000 sea cucumbers and harvests about 3,500 pieces a year from a 1.8-hectare fish pen in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. The harvestable size weighs from 50 to 100 grams. His concern: he’s not making much profit and there is insufficient data on best culture practices.

With an investment of P100,000, Emerlinda Dizon raises sea cucumbers inside two fish pens in Panglit. Harvestable size: 1,000 grams. Her fresh, dried and smoked products are sold to Binondo exporters.

She says high stocking density stunts their growth.

Artemio Caasi, of the Samahan ng Maliliit na Mangingisda also raises sea cucumber in Victory village, Bolinao, Pangasinan. In sea ranching, he says, harvest must be done when sea cucumbers each weigh 500 grams or more.

Jaime Fernandez, of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Davao del Sur, runs a sea cucumber pen in Barangay Bato, Santa Cruz. He complains about low reproduction. For areas that are already depleted, he says the culture of sea cucumber in pens or establishing of sea cucumber reserve is an option.

Trader Benito Reyes, who sources sea cucumbers from Quezon, and Irene Jamero, who gets them from Siargao, say the cooking process is critical to the quality of the dried sea cucumber.

They say there is a need to standardize prices nationwide because of the big disparity of rates in the Visayas and Mindanao.

“The Bolinao Marine Laboratory has initiated pilot scale hatchery for sea cucumber,” says Dr. Marie Antonette Juinio-Meñez of the UP Marine Science Institute (UP MSI). “It is recommended that stocking density should be maintained at about 200 grams per square meter. This ensures not only good growth but also good reproductive output and fertilization success.”
--Paul M. Icamina