Indonesian fishermen are running out of sea cucumbers

The Jakarta Post 15 Mar 10;

Indonesia fishermen at Scott Reef, one of the allowed areas for traditional fishermen in Australian fishing zone, are running out of sea cucumbers.

“As the result of the increasing depletion of the resource (of sea cucumbers), the selling price has increased between 33 and 200 percent within four years,” James J Fox of the Australian National University said in the meeting of Research Institute of Maritime and Fisheries on Monday.

According to Fox, the fishermen, mostly from Rote Island, East Nusa Tenggara, hoped that the price rises would compensate for decrease quantities of sea cucumber harvested.

There is a total of 550 legal Indonesian traditional fishermen came to Australia every year.