Status and Management of Sea Cucumber Fishery in Sri Lanka PDF

2008 / 2009
Status and Management of Sea

Cucumber Fishery in Sri Lanka
Administrator
[Type the company name]
1/1/2008
D.C.T. Dissanayake & S. Athukorala
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) for their financial and technical support for this difficult task.
A note of gratitude is also owed Mr. G. Piyasena, Secretary, Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic
Resources, Mr. Pathirana, Director General, Department of Fisheries, Mr. K. Haputhanthri,
Chairman NARA and Ms. K.T.R. Prathapasinghe, Director General NARA for their valuable
comments and advice. The support given by Assistant Directors in Puttam, Batticolloa and
Kalmunaei fisheries districts and their staff members are greatly acknowledged.
We specially thank to Mr. H.S.G. Fenando, (National Project Co-coordinator), Dr. C. Amarasiri
for their invaluable advice, guidance and for constantly giving us the needed inspiration and
encouragement. We cannot forget the support given by staff members of CENARA project.
With great pleasure we wish to thank all the staff members of Marine Biological Resources
Division of National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency for their support
during the field survey activities.
A special word of thanks is decided to sea cucumber fisher folk, collectors, processors and
exporters for giving us so much support during these activities.

CONTENTS
1. Executive Summary 2
2. Introduction 5
a. Study objectives 10
3. Fishery Independent Surveys 11
3.1. Methodology for underwater visual survey on sea cucumbers 11
3.1.1. Personnel and training 12
3.1.2. Survey area and site selection 14
3.1.3. Survey type 15
3.1.4. Survey area 15
3.1.5. Survey time 17
3.1.6. Sampling design 18
3.1.7. Pilot Study 18
3.1.8. Field Sampling 19
3.1.9. Species identification 21
3.1.10. Size and weight measurements 21
3.1.11. Data Management 22
3.1.12. Data analysis 23
3.2. Results East coast underwater visual survey (Part 1) 26
3.2.2. Species observed 27

3.2.3. Abundance Estimate 33
3.2.4. Biomass Estimate 33
3.2.5. MSY and Total Allowable Catch (TACs) Estimates 35
3.2.6. Distribution of sea cucumbers in study area 36
3.3. Results East coast underwater visual survey (Part 2) 37
3.4. Results North West coast underwater visual survey (Part 1) 43
3.5. Results North West coast underwater visual survey (Part 2) 49
3.3.1. Survey area
3.3.2. Species observed
3.3.3. Abundance Estimate
3.3.4. Biomass Estimate
3.3.5. MSY and Total Allowable Catch (TACs) Estimates

3.3.6. Distribution of sea cucumbers in study area
4. Fishery Dependent Surveys 51
4.1. Methodology for Fishery Dependent survey on sea cucumbers 51
4.1.1. Study area 52
4.1.2. Frame survey 52
4.1.3. Catch and Effort data collection 52
4.1.4. Data analysis 54
4.2. Results of Fishery Dependent Surveys 54
4.2.1. Results of the frame survey 55
4.2.2. Fishing season 55
4.2.3. Seasonal migration 56
4.2.3. Fishing crafts 56
4.2.4. Fishing gear 57
4.2.5. Species dominance in the commercial catches 57
4.2.6. Catch and Effort 58
4.2.7. Variation in CPUE (Catch per Unit Effort) 60
4.2.8. Length and weight of commercially exploited sea cucumbers 62
4.2.9. Market value of commercial sea cucumbers 63
4.2.10. By-catch species 63
4.2.11. Constrains 64
4.2.12. Discussion 65
5. Proposed size limits for landings and exports for the selected sea cucumbers 66
5.1. Introduction 67
5.2. Methodology 69
5.3. Results 71
5.3.1. Major steps of processing 71
5. 3.2. Length and weight changes of Stichopus chloronotus 73
5.3.3. Length and weight changes of Thelenota anax 75
5.3.4. Length and weight changes of Holothuria atra 77
5.3.5. Length and weight changes of Bohadschia sp 1 79
5.3.6. Information on first sexual maturity 81
5.3.7. Proposed size limits for landings and exports 81
5.4. Discussion 82
5.5. Benefits 83
6. Recommendation for Sea cucumber fisheries Management 84
6.1. Major concepts for management 85
6.2. Management recommendations 88
6.3. Conclusion 95
7. References
8. Annex
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Background
Sea cucumbers are fished worldwide but over-exploited in most countries (Lovatelli et al. 2004).
Sea cucumber populations can be slow to recover from overfishing and must be managed
conservatively.
In Sri Lanka, the sea cucumber fishery has operated since late 80’s (Hornell, 1917). Now, it is
based primarily on about 20 species, exported as dried ‘bêche-de-mer” to Asian markets. Based
on a need by the provinces to better understand and manage the sea cucumber resource of Sri
Lanka, the project was developed by the NARA with the financial and technical assistance from
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This report covers work
coordinated by the Marine Biological Resources Division of NARA during 2008 and 2009 for
the project from “Capacity Enhancement of NARA staff on Resource surveys and Stock
Assessment”. It describes results of Underwater Visual surveys carried out in the Northwestern
and East coast of Sri Lanka (sea cucumbers and chanks), catch and effort surveys during 2008
and 2009. Proposed management plan is also included at the end.
Methodology
A total of 500 survey sites from east coast and North Western coast were surveyed for sea
cucumbers and chanks. Underwater Visual Surveys were used to assessment purposes and
survey sites were geo-referenced using GPS technology. The surveys provide estimates of
densities of species and biomass estimates.
GIS software (MapInfo) was used to calculate the surface area of sites. The total abundance of
each species per site and the area was calculated. The total biomass and MSY were also
calculated by using different methodologies. An attempt was made to calculate the TAC’s for
different species based on the survey results. The scientists and research assistants of NARA
were trained in field survey methods and identification of sea cucumber species.
In place of a large study on movement and growth, we conducted landing surveys and a study on
weight and length loss through different processing stages for selected species. Conversion ratios
were calculated for each step of processing of sea cucumbers in the weight and length loss study.
Weight and length losses in processing was coupled with the information of size at first sexual
maturity and based on this size limit was determined for selected sea cucumber species for the
landings as well as exporting. Fishing effort, Catch per Unit Effort (CPUE) and total sea
cucumber production was estimated and these were compared with results from population
surveys.
Results
Around 24 sea cucumbers are evident from Sri Lankan waters among which 20 are commercially
exploited. High value, medium value and low value species are harvested in the commercial
fishing activities and low value species are dominant both in the catches as well as in the wild
population. The abundance of sea cucumbers are varied markedly among sites: species were
abundant at some sites but not others. That is, distributions were quite patchy for most species.
The species richness did not differ greatly between the two areas Populations of a few
commercial species appear depleted, namely Actinopyga mauritiana, Holothuria fuscogilva,
Holothuria nobilis and Holothuria sp (pentard) . Several other species are perhaps not critically
low but are relatively sparse, namely A. echinites, A. miliaris and H. scabra. Most of the other
commercial species are relatively common and have breeding populations at some sites that
should allow for some further recruitment. Also, several species were rare in our field
observations. A comparison of size-frequencies of sea cucumbers in landing and those from field
surveys suggested that there was some selection by fishers for larger individuals. Populations of
some species were restricted to one or two size classes, perhaps indicating infrequent
recruitment. Most of the sea cucumber fishers are men aged 30-50 years. Scuba diving is the
frequent fishing gear and the skin diving is also practiced in some areas. Many fishers had years
of experience, but a lot of them have only recently started fishing sea cucumbers. Sea cucumbers
were the most important source of income for most of the coastal communities specially in east
and North West.. Many fishers only spend a couple of days fishing each week, and the Catch per
Unit Effort (CPUE) of fishers varied markedly among regions. Compared to perceived historical
CPUE, estimates of current CPUE from landing and interviews with fishers indicate that catch
rates have declined in some regions.
Conclusions
Some stocks of sea cucumbers in Sri Lanka can probably sustain further fishing impacts, at
modest levels. Stocks for some other species are low or depleted and management regulations
should be brought in to ensure their breeding populations do not decline further. Fishers in some
areas are still harvesting sea cucumbers intensely even though the average sizes of animals have
declined and even though they believe the abundances have declined. The capture of some small
animals and responses from fishers shows that more education of fishers is needed through
regular visits by fisheries officers. We propose 12 recommendations for actions to be taken by
the relevant authorities of Fisheries (Ministry of Fisheries, Department of Fisheries and NARA),
and fishery regulations to be imposed on fishers. A management plan needs to be rapidly
established in the east coast of Sri Lanka that will safeguard the reproductive potential of sea
cucumber populations and their biodiversity. We recommend an adaptive management approach,
whereby the management plan can be changed over time through new information from the
social ecological system.
2. INTRODUCTION
Sea cucumbers are members of the Class Holothuroidea of the Phylum Echinodermata (Conad,
1990). They are highly diverse, abundant and exclusively marine invertebrates that play crucial
roles in the recycling of nutrients and bioturbation processes in marine benthic communities
(Preston, 1993). However they are most common in the Indian Ocean and the South West Pacific
(Conad, 1990). According to James (1990), there are over 1000 species of sea cucumbers in the
various parts of the world.
While over 1000 species have been described, only about two dozen are commercially important
in the tropics and most of these occur in the Sri Lanka. They have been harvested for centuries in
Asia and have become an important source of income for fishing communities worldwide.
Bêche-de-mer is the processed body wall of sea cucumbers. The history of bêche-de-mer
fisheries goes back for thousands of years. Bêche-de-mer is in demand principally in China and
South-east Asia, where it is considered a delicacy. The main markets are Hong Kong and
Singapore, with smaller markets in Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia. The current high demand for
bêche-de-mer now is likely to continue, and may strengthen, due in part to the high economic
growth in China.
The commercial value of a species is generally determined by its size and the thickness of the
body wall. Species of high commercial value such as black teatfish (Holothuria nobilis), white
teatfish (Holothuria fuscogilva) and sandfish (Holothuria scabra) tend to be fished
preferentially. Medium value species include blackfish (Actinopyga miliaris), deep water redfish
(Actinopyga echinites), and yellow surffish (Actinopyga mauritiana). Other shallow water
tropical species generally fall into the low- or no-value category (Conand, 1990).
The beche-de-mer industry in Sri Lanka is very ancient having been introduced by the Chinese.
Hornell (1917) stated that beche-de-mer appear to be one of the commodities taken to China
during the last one thousand years when trade existed between South India, Sri Lanka and China.
In Sri Lanka, sea cucumber fishery is presently confined to the northern cap from Kalpitiya on
the Northwestern coast through the Puttlam Islands around Gulf of Mannar, Trincomalee,
Pothuwil and Kalmunei in the Northeast and Eastern coastal waters of Sri Lanka (Figure 01).
These are the major sea cucumber fishing areas since it has been introduced to Sri Lanka.
There are no records on local consumption of sea cucumbers in Sri Lanka. Beach–de–mer is the
major commodity that is produced in Sri Lanka and the entire annual production is currently
exported to Singapore, Hong Kong and China. As there is import and re export mechanisms as
well as a shortage of continuous information regarding the annual exports and lack of statistical
data based catch and effort monitoring, it is not easy to estimate the annual production of sea
cucumbers.
The fishery is open access and no any regulation or precautionary approach was adapted so far
except issuing license for divers and transportation of the product. So this is totally an
unregulated fishery. With increasing demand for beach–de–mer in international market, fishers
have increased their fishing effort continuously. Now fishery is showing some signs of
population depletion, including lower volumes of high value species and fishers having to travel
further, and concerns were raised regarding the sustainability of the fishery. Since there was no
baseline data on the fishery, there was limited precautionary measures have been implemented so
far.
Very little targeted research on sea cucumbers has taken place in Sri Lanka previously. The first
available record of sea cucumber from Sri Lanka was dated back 1808 (Joseph and Moiyadeen,
1988). The first detailed studies of the holothurians fauna of Sri Lanka was made when Professor
Herdman made his visit to Sri Lanka in 1902. The 30 species of holothuroids collected by him
were studied in detail and reported by Joseph Pearson in 1903. This is by far the largest
collection of Holothuroids ever collected from the waters of Sri Lanka (Joseph and Moiyadeen,
1988).
Studies on sea cucumber fishery in northwestern coastal waters (specially in Kalpitiya) of Sri
Lanka has been carried out in late 80’s and eight commercially important sea cucumber species
has been listed out (Moiyadeen, 1993). According to Joseph and Moiyadeen, (1988), more than
seventy species of holothuroids have been recorded from Sri Lanka in time to time and thirteen
of these are consumed in various parts of the world.
Figure 01: Major fishing areas of sea cucumber
The fishery for sea cucumber in Sri Lanka is influenced greatly by the monsoon winds during the
south west and north east monsoons, which bring about much wave action and currents in the sea
increasing the turbidity of water making it difficult to spot the animals. Moreover, the inter-
monsoon rain also pours in water from river mouths into sea making it more turbid.
Hence off the North western coast, from Puttlam to Mannar, harvesting occurs intensively during
the North east monsoon (from October to April) i.e. when the south west monsoon (May to
September) has subsided, the inter-monsoonal rains have ceased and the water has become clear.
In the east coast (Trincomalee, Kalmunaei and Pothuwil) fishing is undertaken during the south
west monsoon period. However the industry is not completely folded up during the “off season”.
No special gear or net is devised exclusively to catch sea-cucumbers and it is mainly harvested
by hand picking either through scuba diving or skin diving. Scuba diving is carried out all the
major landing sites except in Mannar. Sea cucumbers are defenseless animals and no resistance
is offered at the time of capture. Further they do not try to escape and so it is easy to catch.
Fiberglass Reinforced (FRP) boats powered by 15 or 25HP engines are the main vessels used for
fishing.
Two to three divers and the boat operator go for a fishing trip in Kalpitiya, Trincomalee,
Kalmunaei and Pothuwil area while 8 to 10 divers use one boat in Mannar area.
The fishing crafts leave around 7.30 a.m. – 8.00 a.m. and return around 2.30 p.m. – 3.30 p.m.
when it is carried out sea cucumber fishing at day time. Night fishing is also carried out in both
areas. When night fishing is done they leave around 6.00 p.m. and come back in the early
morning around 2.00 a.m. – 3.00 a.m.
There are about 4500 to 5000 dependant families through the sea cucumber fishing activity.
Around 1500 to 2000 families engage in the beach de-mer- fishery in Kalpitiya Peninsula and
they have permanently settled in various parts of Puttalam lagoon. The rest of the families have
been settled in Mannar, Batticoaloa and Trincomalee areas while some migrate between the areas
during the season to dive for fresh sea cucumbers. They either join local divers on a contract
basis or work for a dealer or processor.
Study Objectives
In recent years, there has been some evidence of at least local depletion in Sri Lankan sea
cucumber fishery and recognized urgent need for research on this fishery to formulate
sustainable management measures
Unfortunately, there was very little information available to assess the status of the Sri Lankan
sea cucumber fishery populations. In the absence of reliable long term fishery dependant data, a
stock survey was the only viable method for determining the size and status of fished
populations. Stock size and indications of stock status are two useful parameters on which to
base robust management strategies. A survey would collect distribution and abundance data on
all available sea cucumbers even those not yet fished. So it was decided to carry out underwater
visual survey for the sea cucumber and chank fisheries by having following objectives. This
would basically provide the data for a first estimate of stock status, and be the baseline for future,
efficient monitoring of stock size.
1. Carry out both fishery dependant and fishery independent surveys in the major sea
cucumber fishing areas to study the stock status of sea cucumbers.
2. Based on the survey results, suitable management plans will be implemented to ensure
the sustainable utilization of sea cucumber resources through active participation of
community who are directly involve in fishing activities.
3. Provide sufficient training to NARA research staff to enable them to carry out /supervise
sea cucumber surveys in other parts of Sri Lanka
SECTION 3.1
METHODOLOGY FOR
UNDERWATER VISUAL SURVEY ON
SEA CUCUMBERS
3.1. PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY
3.1.1. Personnel and training
Training was given to the project Research Officers, Research Assistants and divers in the field
survey methods and species identification. Detail training was given to the survey staff in the
identification of sea cucumber species, measurements of live animals, and the various
methodologies for censusing sea cucumbers and chanks (Figure 1). The sea cucumber
Identification sheets were prepared to use in the field.
Training of scientific staff Training of scientific staff
Taking length measurements Taking weight measurements
Figure 1: On the job training given to the project staff

Scientists as well as commercial divers actively participated for the survey activities. The
commercial divers were trained on survey methodologies and they were also given on the job
training (Figure 2). Commercial divers were trained by the NARA research staff.
Divers Training – East coast Divers training – NW coast
Divers training - Underwater Divers training - Underwater
Figure 2: Training of commercial divers
Further the onboard research staff were trained for data recording and navigate to sampling
sites by using hand held GPS (Figure 3).
Navigate to sampling sites by using GPS Onboard data recording
Figure 3: Training onboard research staff
3.1.2. Survey area and site selection

Following information were used to identify the survey area.
a. Information collected through interviewing the fishermen in the area
Fishermen were interviewed to collect the information about the fishing ground and
habitat types. The maps were given to the fishing folk to demarcate the sea cucumber
fishing grounds as well as non fishing grounds (Figure 4)
b. Available maps in the area

The geographical information, depth and habitat information were gathered through the
available maps in the excising fishing areas of the east coast and Northwestern coast of
Sri Lanka.
c. Fishermen logbook or their personal diary

Normally divers record the fishing position and number of individual caught in each day
in their personal diary. This information was also collected to demarcate the survey area.
Interviewing the fishermen Fishermen help to demarcate the fishing
grounds
Figure 4: Collect information to demarcate the survey area
3.1.3. Survey type
As the fishing activities are basically carried out through diving (skin and scuba), it was decided
to carry out Underwater Visual Survey (UVS) with the help of scuba divers both from
commercial as well as scientists. According to the literature, underwater visual survey is the most
suitable technique to assess the population who are having sedentary behavior.
3.1.4. Survey area
As sea cucumber and chank fishery is presently confined to East and North western coastal
waters, it was decided to do the surveys in those areas. The east coast survey area was
demarcated from Wakarai to Sangamankanda which covers both Batticoalloa and Kalmunaei
fisheries district and the along shore distance of the study area extended 190.047 km. The North
west coast study area extends from Mampuri to Arippu where there are 111.57 km shore distance
and the study area also bounded by Puttlam and Mannar fisheries district (Figure 05).
Survey area – East coast Survey area – Northwestern coast
Figure 5: Survey area for the sea cucumber and chank resources
The sea cucumber fishery in Sri Lanka occurs mainly in the shallow (<40m deep) parts of the
North West and Eastern coastal waters. Since it was not possible to sample deeper than 30m for
safety reasons the study area was confined to water depths up to 30m which covered an area of
1305.92 km2 in the East coast and 2054.19 km2 in the North west coast. The depth wise
breakdown of the survey area is summarized in Table 1.
Table 1: The estimated survey area in east coast and the North western coast
Strata East coast area North west coast area
(sq km) (sq km)
Batticoaloa Ampara Puttlam Mannar
0 - 10 163.98 76.04 289.29 398.13
10 - 20 287.19 151.06 208.91 488.51
20 - 30 288.59 339.05 328.77 64.90
Reef 6.61 7.77 91.90 41.58
Total 746.37 573.92 623.05 1195.18
3.1.5. Survey time
By considering time of the year where we have minimum disturbance in the sea and maximum
visibility, decision was made to carry out the surveys in the following time period (Table2).
Table 2: Time frame for the surveys
Area Survey time
East coast (Survey 1) June to August 2008 (Real survey was carried out from
11th July to 3rd August)
East coast (Survey 2) June to July 2009 (Real survey was carried out from 19th
June to 3rd July 2009)
North West coast (Survey 1) September to November 2008 (18th October to 6th
November)
North West coast (Survey 2) Schedule to do in October

3.1.6. Sampling design
A Geographic Information System (GIS) geodatabase was assembled from existing bathymetric
and habitat data extracted by heads-up digitizing of scanned and geo referenced nautical charts.
The coastline, reefs and shoals were digitized from Landsat & ETM+ satellite data.
As there are very little historical data as well as sea cucumbers preferable habitats we decided to
do random sampling for the pilot survey and decision were made to do stratification based on the
pilot survey results if possible.
3.1.7. Pilot Study

A pilot study was carried out in the east coast to trial the field sampling techniques and obtain
estimates of mean abundance and variance of sea cucumbers so that an analysis could be done to
determine the (a) basis on which to stratify; and (b) number of samples to take. The original plan
was to sample 25 m, 50 m and 100m belt transects at 90 sites randomly allocated (Figure 6)
throughout the 0 – 30m depth zone. Fifteen sites were sampled using the methods described by
Long et al. (1996) for sampling sea cucumbers in Torres Strait. After sampling 15 sites and not
collecting any sea cucumbers the pilot was abandoned and modifications were made to base the
survey design on the field data collected during the pilot such as the time to sample a site and
time to travel between sites. Additional information from local commercial sea cucumber
fishermen was also used for the final design.
Figure 6: Sampling sites for pilot survey in the East coast of Sri Lanka
The outcome of the pilot study was to increase the transect length from 50 to 100 m
Sampling sites were randomly allocated throughout the study area using Hawth’s tools
(www.hathstools.com). Sites were constrained to be at least 1 km apart. This essentially divided
the study area up into 1 km x 1 km primary sampling units with one 100 x 2 m transect
subsample randomly taken inside 500 randomly chosen primary sampling units.
The 1 km minimum distance was used to more evenly distribute sampling effort throughout the
study area and prevent clumping and gaps that could occur if random sampling was based on the
100 x 2m transect as the primary sampling unit.
3.1.8. Field Sampling
The survey employed rapid marine assessment techniques that have been employed in sea
cucumber surveys in Torres Strait (Long et al., 1996), Moreton Bay (Skewes et al., 2002), the
Timor MOU Box (Skewes et al., 1999) and Milne Bay Province, PNG (Skewes et al., 2002) and
Seychelles. Field work was undertaken by a team of divers operating from a dinghy and locating
sample sites using portable Global Positioning System (GPS). At each site either a diver or
divers swam along a 50 m transect and recorded resource and habitat information 2 m either side
of the transect line. At each site, the substrate was described in terms of the percentage cover of
sand, rubble, limestone platform, coral or terrestrial rock and mud. Other benthic taxa such as
black coral and whip coral and the percentage cover of other conspicuous biota such as seagrass
and algae were also recorded. Sea cucumbers and other benthic fauna of commercial1 or
ecological interest within the belt transect were collected and returned to the dinghy and
measured and weighed back at the NARA base station (Figure 6)
Boats are ready to go to survey activities Survey boat is in sampling site
Divers are ready to go down Covering a transect by a commercial diver
Collecting sea cucumbers within a transect Collected sea cucumbers

Figure 6: Steps of survey activities
3.1.9. Species identification
Species identifications were made through the use of published books, scientific journal articles,
museum journal articles, and correspondence with internationally-renowned taxonomists. The
sea cucumber identification sheets were prepared and these were also used in the field for the
species identification (Figure 7)
Sea cucumber Identification sheet 1 Sea cucumber Identification sheet 2
Figure 7: Field identification sheets for sea cucumbers
3.1.10. Size and weight measurements

Length and weight measurements of collected sea cucumbers were taken at the base station.
The body length was measured to nearest 1 cm and weighed to nearest 1 g using an electronic
balance. The animals were allowed approximately 1 minute to drain before being weighed. Both
the whole weight and gutted weight were taken. Apart from these measurements, gut contents as
well as reproductive organs were collected for further biological analysis (Figure 8)
Measuring length of collected sea cucumbers Measuring weight of collected sea cucumbers
Gutting of animals Gut contents and reproductive organs
Figure 8: Length weight measurements and biological sampling
3.1.11. Data Management

A database was created in MS-Excel to store and maintain the integrity of the field data. All of
the data were stored in this way. An important step in this operation was to attribute a unique
identifying number for each sampling site. These unique identifiers provided a link between the
transect survey observations, animal measurements and geographic coordinates. The unique
identifiers equally correspond in the GIS interface to the geographic object (i.e. transect). The
survey datasheet is annexed in Appendix 1.
Pre defined sampling sites were located using the handheld GPS and were transferred on
navigation software and associated to the data in MS-Excel tables. Data manipulations, e.g., to
calculate average abundances, densities and error estimates, were made in MS-Excel and MS
access with the help of SPSS software. The summary data were then imported into a GIS
application, MapInfo, in order to illustrate results geographically. Tables were automatically
created on MapInfo by opening Excel results tables. Associated coordinates allowed us to
position field data information on their object transect.
3.1.12. Data analysis
Calculation of the average densities of each species within transect is simple: it is just a
computation using the transect data, standardized to individuals per hectare. Abundance
estimates take into account the actual survey area in which the animals occur.
To calculate abundance, we firstly multiplied the density of each species by the survey area. This
provided mean estimates, with associated standard error, of the number of individuals of each
species within survey area. The equation to calculate abundances of each species is given below.
The following two approaches have been used to estimate the Maximum Sustainable Yields
(MSY) of sea cucumber fisheries in Alaska, Moreton Bay, Torres Strait (Skewes, 2006) and rock
lobsters in Torres Strait (pitcher, 1992)
The first method has been used for new and developing invertebrate fisheries where there is little
data to formulate a stock-recruitment relationship, and is a version of the surplus production
model that requires only the biomass estimate (usually assumed to represent virgin biomass) and
natural mortality (M) (Gulland, 1983) such that
MSY = ½ MB0
The model is based on the logistic function that assumes that maximum population growth is
highest at intermediate population sizes. In practice the proportion of the breeding population
required for MSY may be larger than this, and various authors have suggested that the scaling
factor should be reduced to 0.2 (Perry, 1999). This approach has been used to produce MSY
estimates for beche-de-mer fisheries in this study.
The second approach to determining optimal catch rates is to use an estimate of the optimal
fishery mortality rate (Fopt) based on natural mortality, such that Fopt = 0.6 M (Perry, 1999),
which has been suggested as a robust method for TAC calculation for a broad range of species.
The exploitation rate u, being the proportion of the population fished for a given F can then be
calculated using the formula
u = F/Z (1-exp-Z)
Where Z is the total mortality rate (M+F). The MSY can then be calculated using the estimate of
biomass B, such that
MSY = u * B
The natural mortality (M) is the other parameter that needs to calculate MSY using both models.
The estimates of natural mortality have been produced for some Holothurian species and it
probably varies by species, by age, and even spatially and temporally. According to (Conand,
1990), mortality estimates are in the range of M = 0.6 to 1.0 (55 to 37 percent survival annually).
The published estimates of natural mortality for the tropical holothurians species were used in
this analysis.
These estimates of MSY should only be used as an indicator of the potential annual yields that
could be gained from this fishery given stable recruitment. The models have several
assumptions, the most important being that there is no spatial stock structure. Also, when
populations are substantially below virgin biomass, recruitment may become depressed and the
assumptions underlying the model are further breached. Depleted sea cucumber populations risk
dilution effects hampering recruitment at low stock levels. This effect is likely to occur for
broadcast spawners at low abundances such that the fertilization success in the water column is
much reduced due to the dilution of the gametes in the water column.
These factors mean it is likely that the optimal catch rate is substantially less than the lowest
calculated MSYs for exploited populations. We therefore recommend TACs for exploited
species that are half the lowest calculated MSY. Additionally, TACs are limited to no more than
10% of the model biomass. We feel that TACs < 10 t would be impractical to enforce, prone to
being exceeded and a risk of overexploitation. The above are contained in a set of rules for
calculating suggested TACs for each species based on stock status and MSY estimates (Table 3).
Using these rules, we calculated recommended TACs for each species.
Table 3: Rules of calculating TACs for each species
Rule TAC
Stock status: unexploited MSY
Stock status: exploited 0.5 × MSY
Stock status: overexploited 0t
MSY estimate < 10 t 0t
TAC > 10% B0 TAC = 10% B0

SECTION 3.2
RESULTS
EAST COAST UNDERWATER VISUAL
SURVEY 2008 (PART 1)

3.2.1. Survey area
500 sampling sites were allocated to east coast (Figure 9) and only day diving were carried out in
the first survey. It was not possible to carry out night diving activities due to the security
situation of the area during the survey period.
Figure 9: East coast sampling sites

We recorded 24 species (or varieties at least) of large sea cucumbers during all the surveys and
these species are summarized in Table 3 including Scientific name, English name and the local
names coupled with their commercial importance. The taxonomy of commercial sea cucumber
species is not stable. Several prospective species observed during the survey require
identification or confirmation of tentative identification. All the sea cucumber species come
across during the surveys are in Figure 10.
Out of these, only 12 species were recorded in the first phase of the East coast survey and results
are summarized in Table 4.
Table 4: Identified sea cucumber species during underwater visual surveys
No Scientific name English name Local name Commercial value
1 Actinopyga echinites* Deep water redfish Goma attaya Medium value
2 Actinopyga miliaris** Blackfish Kalu attaya Medium value
3 Actinopyga mauritiana** Surf redfish Gal attaya Medium value
4 Bohadschia argus** Leopard fish Koti attaya Low value
5 Bohadschia atra** Tigerfish Nari nool attaya Low value
6 Bohadschia marmorata** Chalkyfish Duburu Nool attaya Low value
7 Bohadschia similis** Brownspotted sandfish Line nool attaya Low value
8 Bohadschia unidentified sp. 1** Sudu nool attaya Low value
9 Bohadschia unidentified sp. 2** Kiri nool attaya Low value
10 Bohadschia unidentified sp. 3** Kiri nool attaya Low value
11 Holothuria atra Lolly fish Narri attaya Low value
12 Holothuria edulis Pinkfish Rathu attaya Low value
13 Holothuria fuscogilva* White teatfish Preema attaya High value
14 Holothuria hilla No value
15 Holothuria leucospilota No value
16 Holothuria nobilis* Black teatfish Polanga attaya High value
17 Holothuria scabra* Sand fish Jaffna attaya High value
18 Holoturia spinifera Brown sand fish Disco attaya Low value
19 Holothuria sp(pentard)* Preema bathik attaya High value
20 Stichopus chloronotus** Greenfish Dabalaya Low value
21 Stichopus herrmanni* Curryfish Sani attaya Low value
22 Thelenota ananas Prickly redfish Annasi attaya Low value
23 Thelenota anax* Amberfish Poona attaya Low value
24 Acaudina molpadioides** Uru attaya Low value
*The scientific names of these species were confirmed by Prof. C. Conad and Dr. Sven Uthicke
** The scientific names of these species need to be confirmed
Holothuria nobilis Holothuria fuscogilva
Holothuria sp. (pentard) Holothuria scabra
Holothuria atra Holothuria edulis

Holothuria spinifera Bohadschia unidentified sp. 1
Bohadschia marmorata Bohadschia argus
Bohadschia atra Bohadschia unidentified sp. 2

Bohadschia similis Bohadschia unidentified sp. 3
Thelenota anax Thelenota ananas
Stichopus chloronotus Stichopus herrmanni

Acaudina molpadioides Actinopyga mauritiana
Actinopyga echinites wActinopyga miliaris
Holothuria hilla Holothuria leucospilota
Figure 10: Sea cucumber species found in underwater visual surveys
Twelve sea cucumber species were recorded from the initial stage of east coast survey and
results are summarized in Table 5.
Table 5: Identified sea cucumber species in East coast survey (Phase 1)
1 Actinopyga echinites Deep water redfish Goma attaya Medium value
2 Actinopyga miliaris Blackfish Kalu attaya Medium value
3 Bohadschia argus Leopard fish Koti attaya Low value
4 Bohadschia atra Tigerfish Nari nool attaya Low value
5 Bohadschia marmorata Chalkyfish Duburu Nool attaya Low value
6 Bohadschia unidentified sp. 1 Sudu nool attaya Low value
9 Holothuria fuscogilva White teatfish Preema attaya High value
10 Holothuria nobilis Black teatfish Polanga attaya High value
11 Holothuria sp(pentard) Preema bathik attaya High value
12 Stichopus chloronotus Greenfish Dabalaya Low value
The mean abundance per hectare is summarized in Table 6 and it indicates that the highest
abundance is from Holothuria edulus followed by Holothuria atra. It is obvious that the mean
abundance of high value species are negligible compared with the low value species.
The biomass estimates for different sea cucumber species are summarized in Table 7 and the
reported the highest biomass was from Holothuria atra while Stichopus chloronotus
reported the lowest.
Table 6: Mean abundance of each sea cucumber species found in East coast
Species Name Mean per ha Sd CIL CIU
Holothuria atra 24.12 53.63 19.34 28.90
Holothuria edulus 39.86 87.44 32.06 47.65
Holothuria fuscogilva 0.62 5.54 0.13 1.12
Holothuria nobilis 0.31 3.93 0.00 0.66
Other Holothurians 2.17 14.77 0.86 3.49
All Holothuria species 67.08 109.09 57.35 76.81
Bohadschia marmorata 5.69 27.02 3.28 8.10
Bohadschia sp.1 6.52 29.76 3.87 9.18
All Bohadschia species 12.73 44.14 8.80 16.67
Stichopus chloronotus 5.18 25.65 2.89 7.46
All Stichopus species 5.18 25.65 2.89 7.46
Actinopyga echinites 2.17 13.30 0.99 3.36
Actinopyga miliaris 3.11 16.44 1.64 4.57
All Actinopyga species 5.28 22.04 3.31 7.24
All Sea cucumber species 90.27 129.83 78.69 101.85
High value sea cucumbers 1.04 7.13 0.40 1.67
Medium value sea cucumbers 5.28 22.04 3.31 7.24
Low value sea cucumbers 83.95 124.35 72.86 95.04

Table 7: Total Biomass (tons) of each sea cucumber species found in the East coast
Species Name Total Biomass (tons)
Holothuria atra 766.8
Holothuria edulus 412.8
Holothuria fuscogilva 132.8
Holothuria nobilis 73.1
Bohadschia marmorata 593.1
Bohadschia sp.1 606.8
Stichopus chloronotus 68.0
Actinopyga echinites 198.1
Actinopyga miliaris 253.1
MSY estimates were carried out according to the two major procedures described under the
methodology. The estimated MSY according to the first approach is indicated in MSY1 column
and the second approach was in MSY2 column in Table 8.
Recommended TACs were then formulated using the lowest MSY estimates and stock status
using the rules defined under methodology. Six species had zero TACs due to being over-
exploited or having a low MSY estimate (< 10 t). The bulk of this TAC is be made up of low
value species (1161 t or 68.0 %) such as H. atra and Bohadschia sp. Most of the high value and
medium value species seem to be overexploited or close to be overexploited.
There is wide variation in the spatial distribution and abundance of sea cucumbers in the study
area (Figure 11).
Table 8: MSY and TAC’s Estimates for commercial sea cucumbers
Species Name Total Biomass (T) MSY1(T) MSY2 (T) TAC (T)
Holothuria atra 766.8 153.4 229.5 15.3
Holothuria edulus 412.8 82.6 123.6 < 10
Holothuria fuscogilva 132.8 26.6 31.5 < 10
Holothuria nobilis 73.1 14.6 17.3 < 10
Bohadschia sp.1 606.8 121.4 165.5 12.1
Stichopus chloronotus 68.0 13.6 20.4 < 10
Actinopyga echinites 198.1 39.6 54.0 < 10
Actinopyga miliaris 253.1 50.6 69.0 < 10

Figure 11: Abundance and spatial distribution of sea cucumber in East coast
SECTION 3.3
RESULTS
EAST COAST UNDERWATER VISUAL

3.3.1. Survey area
The same sampling sites which were designed in the first phase were repeated for the day diving
activities while 210 sampling sites were newly allocated for the night diving activities (Figure
12).
Day diving sites Night diving sites
Figure 12: Survey sites – East coast
Thirteen species of sea cucumbers were recorded this survey having two species which were not
recorded previously and results are summarized in Table 9. Compared to last year three new
species (Holoturia spinifera, Thelenota anax and Bohadschia similis) which were not recorded in
the last time were identified from this area during this survey and all these species are frequent at
night. According to the fishers this is the first time that they observed H. spinifera and
Bohadschia similis there was no any documented information about the abundance of this
species in East coast of Sri Lanka. However most of the high valuable species were not recorded.
Two new species which were not recorded previously were also identified (Figure 13)
Table 9: Identified sea cucumber species in East coast survey (Phase 2)
4 Bohadschia similis Brownspotted sandfish Line nool attaya Low value
11 Thelenota anax Amberfish Poona attaya Low value
12 Unidentified sp
13 Unidentified sp
Unidentified Species Unidentified species
Figure 13: Two new records from the east coast survey
abundance is from Holothuria edulus followed by Holothuria atra. It is obvious that the mean
abundance of high value species are further declined compared with the previous survey.
Table 10: Mean abundance of each sea cucumber species found in East coast
Species Name Mean per ha Sd CIL CIU
Holothuria atra 17.2 42.51 14.95 19.45
Holothuria spinifera 13.4 35.57 11.85 14.90
Bohadschia sp.1 6.50 17.45 3.89 9.25
Bohadschia similis 3.55 9.42 2.18 5.77
Telenata anax 12.2 24.78 8.65 15.93
All Telenata species 12.2 24.78 8.65 15.93
High value sea cucumbers 0.22 3.7 0 0.53

reported the highest biomass was from Telenata anax while Holothuria nobilis reported the
lowest. This clearly indicates that night species, Telenata anax is dominant in the wild and it is
not possible to make any comparison with the previous survey as we did not cover the night
activities last time. Further this reveals that there are considerable amount of H. spinifera
resource in the east coast of Sri Lanka.
Table 11: Total Biomass (tons) of each sea cucumber species found in the East coast
Species Name Total Biomass (tons)
Holothuria atra 652
Holothuria edulus 381
Holothuria fuscogilva 30
Holothuria nobilis 17
Holothuria spinifera 281
Bohadschia marmorata 505
Bohadschia sp.1 527
Bohadschia similis 151
Stichopus chloronotus 31
Actinopyga echinites 138
Actinopyga miliaris 195
Telenata anax 752
using the rules defined under methodology. Six species had zero TACs due to being over-
exploited or having a low MSY estimate (< 10 t). The bulk of this TAC is be made up of low
value species such as H. atra and Bohadschia species and Telenata anax. Most of the high value
and medium value species seem to be overexploited or close to be overexploited.
Species Name Total Biomass (T) MSY1(T) MSY2 (T) TAC (T)
Holothuria atra 652 130 195 13
Holothuria edulus 381 76 114 < 10

< 10
Holothuria fuscogilva 30 5 8
< 10
Holothuria nobilis 17 2 4
Holothuria spinifera 281 45 77 < 10
Bohadschia marmorata 505 101 138 10.1
Bohadschia sp.1 527 105 144 10.5

< 10
Bohadschia similis 151 24 35
< 10
Stichopus chloronotus 31 6 9
< 10
Actinopyga echinites 138 22 38
< 10
Actinopyga miliaris 195 31 53
Telenata anax 752 120 178 12
area (Figure 13).
Figure 13: Map of the study area showing the density of all sea cucumbers at each study site
SECTION 3.4
RESULTS
NORTHWEST COAST UNDERWATER
VISUAL

3.4.1. Survey area
Five hundred sampling sites were allocated among which 400 sites were for day diving and the
remaining were for night diving activities (Figure 14).
Day diving sites Night diving sites
Figure 14: Survey sites – North west coast
Twenty species of sea cucumbers were recorded this survey (Table 13). Five species
(Bohadschia similis, Bohadschia unidentified sp. 2, Bohadschia unidentified sp. 3, Holoturia
spinifera and Thelenota anax) were reported only at night diving activities. Other species except
Holothuria fuscogilva, Holothuria hilla, Holothuria nobilis and Holothuria sp (pentard) were
reported only day diving and the rest of the species could be found both day and night diving
activities. However, high value and medium value species were reported very rarely.
Table 13: Identified sea cucumber species in North West coast survey
3 Bohadschia atra Tigerfish Nari nool attaya Low value
5 Bohadschia similis Brownspotted sandfish Line nool attaya Low value
7 Bohadschia unidentified sp. 2 Kiri nool attaya Low value
8 Bohadschia unidentified sp. 3 Kiri nool attaya Low value
11 Holothuria fuscogilva White teatfish Preema attaya High value
12 Holothuria hilla No value
14 Holothuria nobilis Black teatfish Polanga attaya High value
15 Holothuria scabra Sand fish Jaffna attaya High value
17 Holothuria sp(pentard) Preema bathik attaya High value
19 Stichopus herrmanni Curryfish Sani attaya Low value
20 Thelenota anax Amberfish Poona attaya Low value
abundance is from Holothuria edulus followed by Holothuria atra. The results indicate that the
mean abundance of high value species are negligible compared with the low value species and
this is common phenomena both in east and northwestern coast.
reported the highest biomass was from Holothuria edulus while Holothuria (pentrad) sp reported
the lowest.
Table 14: Mean abundance of each sea cucumber species found in North west coast
Species Name Mean per ha Sd CI L CI U
Holothuria atra 89.92 252.15 67.38 112.45
Holothuria spinifera 14.55 74.35 7.91 21.20
Holothuria scabra 1.35 15.59 0.00 2.74
Holothuria (pentrad) sp 0.21 0.50 0.11 0.45
Holothuria lecospolata 1.10 0.13 0.08 0.13
Bohadschia similis 5.09 38.46 1.66 8.53
Bohadschia sp.1 4.05 26.20 1.71 6.40
Bohadschia unidentified sp. 2 0.10 0.26 0.09 0.13
Bohadschia unidentified sp. 3 1.04 0.00 0.00 0.00
Stichopus varigatus 0.21 0.30 0.18 0.23
Telenata anax 5.30 46.97 1.10 9.50
All Telenata species 5.30 46.97 1.10 9.50
All Sea cucumber species 275.36 913.53 193.95 357.22
High value sea cucumbers 1.98 23.46 0.11 4.27
Table 15: Total Biomass (tons) of each sea cucumber species found in the North west coast
Total Biomass
Species Name (tons)
Holothuria edulus 1951.39
Holothuria spinifera 415.98
Holothuria scabra 118.33
Holothuria (pentrad) sp 5.55
Holothuria lecospolata 112.08
Bohadschia similis 294.34
Bohadschia sp.1 447.59
Bohadschia unidentified sp. 2 10.76
Bohadschia unidentified sp. 3 84.71
Stichopus varigatus 49.62
Telenata anax 445.04
using the rules defined under methodology. All the sea cucumber species except H. atra and
H.edulus have TACs less than 10t and this may be due to overexploitation. The bulk of this
TAC is be made up of low value species. Most of the high value and medium value species
seem to be overexploited or close to be overexploited.
Species Name Total Biomass (T) MSY1 (T) MSY2 (T) TAC (T)
Holothuria atra 1,950,286.93 390.06 583.70 39.01
Holothuria edulus 1,951,385.98 390.28 584.03 39.03
Holothuria spinifera 415,981.84 66.56 113.48 6.66
Holothuria fuscogilva 104,659.65 16.75 28.55 1.67
Holothuria nobilis 24,034.19 2.88 5.70 0.29
Holothuria scabra 118,328.33 18.93 32.28 1.89
Holothuria lecospolata 2,081.18 0.42 0.62 0.04
Bohadschia marmorata 513,482.15 82.16 140.08 8.22
Bohadschia similis 294,343.35 47.09 28.61 4.71
Bohadschia sp.1 447,586.49 71.61 122.10 7.16
Stichopus chloronotus 107,820.38 21.56 32.27 2.16
Stichopus varigatus 49,621.36 7.94 13.54 0.79
Telenata anax 445,039.21 53.40 105.49 5.34
Actinopyga echinites 148,572.88 23.77 40.53 2.38
Actinopyga miliaris 279,766.20 44.76 76.32 4.48
area (Figure 15). The results clearly indicate that the sea cucumber distribution is very patchy.
Figure 15: Abundance and spatial distribution of sea cucumber in North West coast
SECTION 3.5
RESULTS
NORTHWEST COAST UNDERWATER
VISUAL

SECTION 4.1
METHODOLOGY FOR
FISHERY DEPENDENT SURVEY ON
SEA CUCUMBERS AND CHANKS

4.1.1. Study area
Catch and effort data of the sea cucumber fishery in the north western coastal waters of Sri
Lanka were collected at the major landing centers in Kalpitiya from October 2008 to April 2009
and this will be continued during the coming season too. Though it was unable to carry out
regular field data collection in the east coast, we are trying to collect the data from divers and
collectors personal records.
4.1.2. Frame survey
Frame survey was carried out in the east and north western coast to identify the major and minor
landing sites, fishing effort, information on divers and localized migration pattern and the fishing
season. The frame survey data sheet is attached in Annex 1.The major landing sites were
assigned for the catch and effort data collection while the effort data were collected at the minor
landing sites.
4.1.3. Catch and Effort data collection
The catch data were collected by making regular weekly field visits to the landing centers in
Kalpitiya peninsula and relevant datasheets (catch and effort data sheet, biological datasheet) are
in Annex 1. On each day more than 95% of the total number of boats operated was sampled
randomly (Figure 17). Sampling was done as soon as the catch was landed. At the landing sites,
sea cucumbers were grouped according to the species and the total length of each individual was
measured to the nearest 1 cm using a measuring board. At the time of measurement, these sea
cucumbers were alive. Before taking length measurements slight pressure was applied to their
bodies. Then they start to elongate and at one point no further elongation takes place. The total
length was measured at this point. The total weight of each individual was also measured using a
field balance. Weight of each individual was taken before evisceration and after evisceration.
The catch of different species, total catch and the number of divers engaged in the fishing
operation were recorded for each boat sampled. Time of fishing and information about the
fishing ground were obtained by interviewing the fishermen. The total number of boats operated
in a particular day was also recorded to estimate the total catch for the day.
All the newly found species were brought the laboratory for further identification. The gut
contents and the reproductive organs were collected together with the length and weight for
biological sampling.
Frame survey activities – counting effort Major landing site at Kalpitiya
Minor landing site at Kalpitiya Commercial catches - Mixed
Commercial catches – One species Taking length measurements
Figure 17: Activities related to catch and effort data collection

4.1.4. Data analysis
In the present analysis, one fishing trip was considered as a unit of effort. Total catch and effort
for each month and the monthly variation of the catch of each of the most abundant species were
estimated from the data collected on each sampling day.
The monthly total production (MTP) of sea cucumber fishery was estimated as the product of
mean catch (in numbers) per boat (CPUE), mean number of fishing operations per day (NFO)
and the mean number of fishing days for that particular month (MRD):
MTP = CPUE x NFO x MRD

SECTION 4.2
RESULTS OF FISHERY DEPENDENT
SURVEYS
4.2.1. Results of the frame survey
The identified major and minor landing sites in the North West and east coast are summarized in
table 17 with the existing fishing efforts.
Table 17: Identified major and minor landing sites through frame survey
Area Landing site Status Fishing Effort
NW Uddappuwa Minor 8
Sinnapaduwa Major 23
Kandakuliya Minor 5
Kudawa Major 27
Kalpitiya Major 48
Wannimundalama Major 97
EC Kathirawelli Major 25
Wakarei Minor 5
Kayankerni Major 13
Oddamawadi Major 25
Kalkuda Major 7 + 10 (oru)
Punnakuda Minor 8
Navaladi Major 15
Kaththankudi Major 12
Kalmunei Major 10
Kalmuneikudi Minor 5
Palamunei Minor 9
Akkarapaththuwa Major 13
Komariya Minor 7
4.2.2. Fishing season

Fishing season for sea cucumbers along the north western coast of Sri Lanka starts in the middle
of October and continues until the end of April of the following year. The fishing activities in
east coast starts in middle May and continues up to late September. Therefore, this fishery is
seasonal. No fishing is carried out when the sea is rough.
4.2.3. Seasonal migration
All most all the divers in North west coast migrate to east coast specially to Wakarei,
Kathrawelli, Kayankerni, Oddamawadi, Kaththankudi, Palamunei, Akkaraepaththuwa and
Komariya during the offseason. The traditional divers in east coast are restricted to the
Punnakuda, Navaladi, Kalmunaei and Kalmunaeikudi. However there are no records about the
divers migration from east to Northwest though it has happened in vice versa.
4.2.3. Fishing crafts

The fishing crafts used is FRP boats with 15 or 25 Hp outboard motors. In some landing sites
(Kalkuda) traditional orus are also used as the fishing crafts (Figure 18). Normally two divers
and a boat operator go for a fishing trip but sometimes there are three divers onboard.
The fishing crafts leave around 7.30 am – 8.00 am and return around 2.30 pm – 3.30 pm when
day diving activities are carried out. When night fishing is done they leave around 7.00 pm and
come back in the early morning around 2.00 am. There are variations in fishing depths in day
and night diving activities. Day diving is carried out up to 30 m while night diving is restricted 8
to 10 m.
FRP boats with outboard motors Traditional fishing craft (Oru)

Figure 18: Commonly used fishing craft for sea cucumber fishery
4.2.4. Fishing gear
Sea cucumbers are mainly harvested through diving and hand picking. The scuba diving is
carried out by almost all the divers (Figure 19) and skin diving is practiced by the fishers who are
using traditional crafts as the major vessel. Four to five Oxygen tanks are used for a fishing trip
when scuba diving is practiced and true fishing time is varied from 30 to 45 minutes per tank.
Scuba diving – Major fishing method Filling of scuba tanks in “wadiya”
Figure 19: Scuba diving activities and scuba tanks
4.2.5. Species dominance in the commercial catches

Twenty sea cucumber species were commercially exploited in the North West (NW) and East
coast (EC) of Sri Lanka (Table 18). Some species are restricted only to east coast while some are
in North western coast. However most of the species are commercially exploited in both the
areas. Holothuria spinifera is the numerically dominant species in the commercial catches
followed by Holothuria atra. However Holothuria atra was the most predominant species in the
wild. The difference was due to selective harvesting based on the economic returns.
Table 18: Commercially exploited sea cucumber species in Sri Lanka
No Scientific name English name Local name Area
1 Actinopyga echinites Deep water redfish Goma attaya NW & EC
2 Actinopyga miliaris Blackfish Kalu attaya NW & EC
3 Actinopyga mauritiana Surf redfish Gal attaya EC
4 Bohadschia argus Leopard fish Koti attaya EC
5 Bohadschia marmorata Chalkyfish Duburu Nool attaya NW & EC
6 Bohadschia similis Brownspotted sandfish Line nool attaya NW
7 Bohadschia unidentified sp. 1 Sudu nool attaya NW & EC
8 Bohadschia unidentified sp. 2 Kiri nool attaya NW
9 Bohadschia unidentified sp. 3 Kiri nool attaya NW
10 Holothuria atra Lolly fish Narri attaya NW & EC
11 Holothuria fuscogilva White teatfish Preema attaya NW & EC
12 Holothuria nobilis Black teatfish Polanga attaya NW & EC
13 Holothuria scabra Sand fish Jaffna attaya NW
14 Holoturia spinifera Brown sand fish Disco attaya NW
15 Holothuria sp(pentard) Preema bathik attaya NW & EC
16 Stichopus chloronotus Greenfish Dabalaya NW & EC
17 Stichopus herrmanni Curryfish Sani attaya NW and EC
18 Thelenota ananas Prickly redfish Annasi attaya NW & EC
19 Thelenota anax Amberfish Poona attaya NW & EC
20 Acaudina molpadioides Uru attaya EC
4.2.6. Catch and Effort
Figure 20 shows the variation of fishing effort (in number of boats operated per day) in the day
and night fishing activities. The highest fishing effort was observed in December 2008 for the
day fishing activities and it decreases gradually after that and night fishing activities were
dominant since January.
150
120
No of boats
90
60
30
0
Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr
Month
Day Diving Night Diving
Figure 20: Total fishing effort in day and Night diving activities - NW coast
Monthly variation of total sea cucumber production (Number of individuals) is summarized in

Figure 21 and the monthly variation of sea cucumber production (species wise) is summarized in
Table 19.
700,000
600,000
500,000
No of animals
400,000
300,000
200,000
100,000
0
Month
Figure 21: Monthly variation of total sea cucumber production

Table 19: Monthly variation of sea cucumber production (species wise) in NW coast
Month November December January February March April Total
Holothuria scabra 725 324 2,907 2,099 1,432 347 7,833
Holoturia spinifera 0 532,142 269,010 203,677 35,574 1,040,403
Holothuria atra 62,263 78,173 33,068 35,785 18,628 504 228,421
Holothuria fuscogilva 227 95 32 0 35 0 389
Holothuria nobilis 0 77 16 103 0 0 196
Holothuria sp(pentard) 295 292 0 0 0 0 586
Actinopyga miliaris 5,451 6,183 3,127 2,679 987 0 18,426
Actinopyga echinites 1,027 968 1,474 1,210 455 0 5,133
Bohadschia marmorata 17,881 16,472 10,690 7,948 3,186 0 56,176
Bohadschia unidentified sp. 1 15,533 17,031 13,975 9,520 3,109 0 59,168
Bohadschia similis 0 0 12,683 16,711 21,781 6,045 57,219
Thelenota ananas 45 0 8 10 0 0 63
Thelenota anax 0 0 0 20,935 61,501 15,070 97,506
Stichopus chloronotus 24,399 20,290 22,585 12,343 16,179 1,058 96,854
Stichopus herrmanni 45 162 55 188 0 0 451
Total 127,891 140,066 632,759 378,540 330,971 58,597 1,668,825
Total sea cucumber production increases gradually since the starting of fishing season, becomes
maximum in January and gradually declined after that. Holothuria spinifera reported the
maximum production followed by Holothuria atra and the reported lowest production was from
Thelenota ananas.
4.2.7. Variation in CPUE (Catch per Unit Effort)
The CPUE was calculated in terms of catch per boat per day and catch per diver per day. Figure
22 shows the monthly variation of catch per boat in day and night fishing activities. The CPUE
in day diving shows gradual increasing trend from November to January and there after it
decreases gradually. The highest CPUE in night diving was reported with the starting of fishing
activities in January and the lowest CPUE was at the end of the fishing season in April.
Figure 23 shows the monthly variation of catch per diver per day (Catch per Unit Effort) in two
different fishing activities. The trend is much similar to the previous.
400
Catch per boat (Nos)

300
200
100
0
Month
Day Night
Figure 22: Monthly variation of CPUE in terms of catch (Nos) per boat
180
150
Catch per diver (Nos)
120
90
60
30
0
Month
Day Night
Figure 23: Monthly variation of CPUE in terms of catch (Nos) per boat
4.2.8. Length and weight of commercially exploited sea cucumbers
The length and weight ranges of commercially exploited sea cucumbers are summarized in table
20. The maximum length (56.1cm) was evident for B. marmorata while maximum weight
(4200g) was evident in H. fuscogilva. The lowest values for length and weight 11.1 cm and 107 g
respectively) were evident for H. scabra.
Table 20: Length and weight ranges of commercially exploited sea cucumbers in NW coast
Name Length (cm) Mean length Weight (g) Mean weight

(cm) (g)
Holothuria scabra 11.1 - 29.5 18.2 107 – 720 271.95
Actinopyga miliaris 17.2 - 41.3 27.5 220 – 4000 675.59
Actinopyga echinites 13.5 - 30.7 22.59 374 -1325 669.2
Bohadschia marmorata 19.6 - 56.1 33.8 150 – 3125 1148.42
Unid. Bohadschia sp 18.3 - 40.5 28.6 232 – 1700 730.19
Holothuria atra 20.5 – 35.4 27.2 350 – 1100 595.00
Holothuria fuscogilva 25.2 - 46.2 35.6 1000 – 4200 1892.19
Holothuria nobilis 23.8 - 41.7 34.2 985 – 2500 1719.32
Holothuria sp. (Pentrad) 20.4 – 40.2 33.3 845 - 2900 1524.35
Holothuria spinifera 14.5 – 31.9 24.2 150 - 412 295.80
Thelenota anax 19.3-38.5 27.4 125 – 495 378.25
Stichopus chloronotus 25.2 – 38.7 31.3 285 – 950 565.70

4.2.9. Market value of commercial sea cucumbers
Value of the fresh sea cucumber is varying with the species. Table 21 shows the selling prices of
sea cucumber species. There are higher market value for H. nobilis and H. fuscogilva while
Holothuria atra and Stichopus chloronotus have the lowest market value.
Table 21: Selling price of commercial sea cucumber species
Name Price (LKR)
Holothuria scabra 900.00
Unid. Bohadschia sp 225.00
Holothuria sp. (Pentrad) 1200.00
Holothuria spinifera 120.00
Thelenota anax 60.00
4.2.10. By-catch species

Lobsters and some rock fish are frequently found as the by-catch species from sea cucumber
fishery (Figure 25).
Lobsters as by-catch Rockfish as by-catch
Figure 25: Major by-catch species in sea cucumber fishery
4.2.11. Constrains
The divers always complain that the Indian trawlers who are carrying their activities in Mannar
are the big threat to sea cucumber industry in North west coast of Sri Lanka. During our survey
we also came across such activities operated by Indian boats. The Indian vessels and some of
their target species are summarized in Figure 25.
Indian vessels in Mannar Lobster species targeted by Indian vessel
Figure 25: Activities carried out by Indian vessels in Mannar area

4.2.12. Discussion
There are four major sea cucumber landing sites in North western coast and eight sites in east
coast. Fishing season is controlled by the monsoon pattern of the country and fishing activities
are carried out non monsoon period. As a result of this fishing season in North western coast
(October to April) is different from East coast (May to September). However there are slight
variations of the fishing season from year to year. By taking the advantage of differences in
fishing season in the two areas some fishers migrate between the areas during the season to dive
for fresh sea cucumbers. More than 90% migrate from North West coast to East coast during the
season but there are few records about the migration from east coast to North West coast. The
migrant fishers either join local divers on a contract basis or work for a dealer or processor.
James (1994) reported that there are as many as 49 species of sea cucumbers in Indian Ocean
whereas only 24 species are known from the Indian coast. These 24 species also inhabit the
Gulfof Mannar (James, 1994d). According to Moiyadeen (1993), there are eight commercially
important sea cucumber species in Sri Lanka. However the results of this study reveal that there
are 20 commercially important sea cucumber species in the North western and east coast of Sri
Lanka. Of these, Actinopyga mauritiana, Bohadschia argus and Acaudina molpadioides found
only in east coast while Holothuria scabra and Holothuria spinifera, Bohadschia similis,
Unidentified Bohadschia sp 2 and Unidentified Bohadschia sp 2 found only in the commercial
catches of North West coast. All the other commercially exploited sea cucumber species could
be found both East and North west coast.
The highest catches recorded from the Holothuria spinifera followed by Holothuria atra in the
North west coast of Sri Lanka. The lowest abundant of high value species were also evident in
the commercial catches in both the areas. The findings of the fishery independent survey results
are also confirmed by the results of catch statistics. Though we found Holothuria spinifera
fishing grounds in East coast through the second survey, still there are no records from
commercial fishing activities for this species.
Due to the security situation in the country we could not able to collect the catch and effort data
in east coast regularly as in North West coast during the last year. However we will make an
attempt to collect the catch and effort data through the collectors and fishers and hope this will
be success.
SECTION 5
PROPOSED SIZE LIMITS FOR LANDINGS
AND EXPORTS FOR THE SELECTED SEA
CUCUMBERS
5.1. Introduction
Sea cucumbers are highly diverse group of animal, found in many marine habitats at all latitudes,
from foreshore to greater depths, playing an important ecological role in benthic communities as
deposit feeders (Birkeland, 1989; Byrne, 1998). Many species of sea cucumbers are edible and
an increasing demand world-wide for the dried body wall (beche-de-mer) has led to
unsustainable fishing of natural stocks. The over-exploitation of traditional fishing grounds in the
Pacific and Indian Oceans prompted fishers to migrate to new locations to target less valuable
species (Conand 2004).
In Sri Lanka, the fishery is open access and no any regulation or precautionary approach was
adapted so far except issuing licenses for diving and transportation. Further, to avoid the
exploitation of undersized individuals, the exporters are not allowed to export the product if it
exceeds 200 pieces for 1kg. So the fishing activities are not under proper management
procedure except having some precautionary approaches. Recently there are some signs of
population depletion, including lower volumes of high value species and fishers having to travel
further, and concerns were raised regarding the sustainability of the fishery.
In Sri Lanka, research on holothurians or any other Echinodermata species are at a very
preliminary level. Intensive research studies are needed to be undertaken in the field of stock
assessment, reproductive biology and ecology of sea cucumbers to prepare and implement a
proper management plan for the sustainable utilization of this resource.
It is necessary to consider the several biological aspects such as age, growth, longevity,
spawning, fecundity, recruitment distribution and size at first maturity for the proper
management of this fishery. Several management practices including close season, close areas,
size restriction and sea ranging have been implemented by several countries as conservative
measures. Among these, size regulation is considered as the most effective and the important
measure for conservation of sea cucumber and many regulations have been imposed under this.
The sea cucumber population will be depleted drastically if the immature individuals were
exploited continuously.
Reporting the weights of sea cucumbers in exports or studies using fishery-dependent surveys is
fraught with difficulty and associated with errors because they can be in various stage of
commercial processing at the time they are measured. Some studies have been conducted on
various holothurian species to determine the average change in weight from whole, unprocessed
animals to dried beche-demer (Conand, 1990, Skewes et al,2004). Animals sold or presented by
fishers were in various forms of processing into beche-de-mer. On some occasions, the catch was
just gutted; other times the animals are with gut; other times they were dried already. We need to
convert the individual length /weight back to whole body length / weight in order to have a
common unit for the purpose of analysis and make recommendation for implementing
management practices.
This study aims to determine the changes in length and weight of some commercially exploited
sea cucumber species in Sri Lanka from whole live through to fully process (dried) product
which are ready for market. The findings of this study will be coupled with the available length
or weight at first maturity information to determine the minimum size limit for commercial
exploitation and exports. For the purpose of proper monitoring, it is advised to consider the
minimum size limit proposed for the export products based on the correlation between the live
and processed products as well as information on size at first sexual maturity.
A case study in the North western co

5.2. Methodology
The 30 to 40 samples of each species (Stichopus chloronotus, Thelenota anax, Holothuria atra,
and Bohadschia sp 1) were obtained from the fishers at the landing sites and the remaining
process was continued with the help of processing factories in the North western coast of Sri
Lanka. Weights of individual sea cucumbers at different processed stages were gathered by
tracking individuals through the processing chain in the processing factories. The tags were
attached to each specimen and each individual was followed through the process train, from live
whole to final product.
In the landing sites, the animals were drained on the deck of the boat for approximately 1 minute,
and then the whole body length and weight were taken (to nearest 1cm in length and 1g in
weight) using the measuring tape and an electronic balance. The viscera were then removed, by
cutting the animals as practiced by the fishers and gutted length and weight measurements were
taken. Tags were placed through the body wall of the animals; a plastic label was threaded
through the anus with fishing line. Samples were then transported to the processing factory for
further processing. Once in the processing factory samples were weighed after first boiling,
removal from the salt, second boiling and at the different stages of drying up to final dried
product beche-de-mer (Figure 26).
The length and weight loss of each sea cucumber species were calculated at each successive
stage of processing. The available information of size at first maturity (length and weight) was
coupled to establish minimum landing size and the information on processing was used to
determine the suitable size for export materials. The study period was extended up to 3 weeks
starting from 2nd April 2009.
Measuring length Measuring weight
Tagged animals Measuring tagged animals
Figure 26: Different activities related to tagging of sea cucumber

5.3. Results
5.3.1. Major steps of processing

Different species of sea-cucumbers are processed in different ways. Though there are some
modifications from species to species, the major processing procedure of sea cucumbers involves
the following steps.
1. Grading and cleaning
After the sea cucumbers are brought to the landing site, grading and cleaning them in sea water is
carried out to remove dried slime, sand and other extraneous particles (Figure 27a). While
cleaning, the animals are squeezed to remove the water absorbed during storage.
2. Evisceration
After cleaning evisceration is carried out, a small slit is made near the posterior end with a sharp
knife (Figure 27b). Then the intestine, gonads and the respiratory trees run out of the slit
immediately.
3. Boiling (first time)
After evisceration, sea cucumbers are boiled in a clean barrel. Sea cucumbers are subjected to
stirring during the boiling (Figure 27c). The boiling time depends on the type of species and a
wire mesh is used to remove the boiled product from the barrel.
4. Store in salt or burying
The boiled product (Figure 26d) is either stored in salt (Figure 27e) or buried in the moist sand to
activate the bacterial decomposition. Again the storage time depends on the species.
5. Boiling (second time)
All the species are boiled once again to destroy all remnants of bacteria which digested the outer
layer.
6. Drying
Drying is one of the most important operations in the processing of sea-cucumbers. Sun drying is
considered to be better when compared to smoking. Sun drying is very frequent and the boiled
sea cucumbers are transferred to drying platforms or mats for sun drying (Figure 27f)
Figure 27a : Grading of sea cucumbers Figure 27b: Removal of internal organs
Figure 27c: Boiling of sea cucumbers Figure 27d: Boiled Sea cucumbers
Figure 27e: Boiled sea cucumbers in salt Figure 27f: Sun drying on gunny mats
5. 3.2. Length and weight changes of Stichopus chloronotus
Stichopus chloronotus is locally known as Dabala attaya, has firm, rigid ventrally flattened
body. Body of the S. chloronotus is dark green to black in colour with dorsally arranged double
row of large papillae which are yellow in colour. The live form and the proceed form of
Stichopus chloronotus are illustrated in Figure 28a and Figure 28b.
Figure 28a: Stichopus chloronotus – Live Figure 28b: Stichopus chloronotus- Processed
The percentage length and weight losses (an average) of Stichopus chloronotus in the major
processing steps are summarized in Table 22 and the graphical relationship is in Figure 29.
Table 22: Percentage length and weight changes of S. chloronotus on processing

No Processing steps Percentage length ± SD (cm) Percentage weight ± SD (g) with
with respect to initial length respect to whole live weight
1 Fresh specimens 100 (18.6 ± 2.7 *) 100.00 (145.81 ± 40.93* )
2 Evisceration 67.18 ± 10.80
3 First boiling 76.8 ± 7.6 44.88 ± 10.74
4 Second boiling 58.5 ± 6.8 26.71 ± 7.39
5 First step of drying 38.0 ± 4.3 6.96 ± 2.27
6 Dried product 36.2 ± 4.5 3.87 ± 1.03
*This indicates the real length / or weight value.
25.0 150
Weight after first boiling (g)

Length after 1st boiling y = 0.733x + 0.726 y = 0.742x - 5.531
20.0 R² = 0.622 R² = 0.737
100
15.0
(cm)
10.0
50
5.0
0.0 0
10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 0 50 100 150 200
Initial Length (cm) Gutted weight (g)
Initial length vs length after first boiling Gutted weight vs weight after first boiling
16.0
80
Length after second boiling
Weight after second

y = 0.583x - 0.015
y = 0.477x - 6.852
12.0 R² = 0.603
boiling (g)
60 R² = 0.727
8.0
(cm)
40
4.0 20
0.0 0
10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 0 50 Gutted100
weight (g)
150 200
Initial Length (cm)
Initial length vs length after second boiling Gutted weight vs weight after second boiling
12.0 25
Length after first day
Weight after first drying (g)
y = 0.392x - 0.228 y = 0.126x - 1.950

R² = 0.658 20 R² = 0.645
drying (cm)
8.0
15
4.0 10
5
0.0 0
10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 0 100 200
Initial Length (cm) Gutted weight (g)
Initial length vs length after first phase of drying Gutted weight vs weight after first drying
10.0 12
Length after completion of
weight of dried product (g)
y = 0.326x + 0.562 y = 0.075x - 1.017

8.0 10
R² = 0.522 R² = 0.698
8
drying (cm)
6.0
6
4.0 4
2.0 2
0
0.0
0 50 100 150 200
10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0
Gutted weight (g)
Initial Length (cm)
Initial length vs length of final product Gutted weight vs weight of final product
Figure 29: Length and weight changes of S. chloronotus in the major steps of processing
It indicates that there is 63.8 % length reduction and 96.13 % weight loss (whole live weight) of
Stichopus chloronotus when it is processed to beche –de-mer.
5.3.3. Length and weight changes of Thelenota anax
This species is locally known as Poona attaya. The body of Thelenota anax is firm, rigid,
squarish in cross section and flattened ventrally. Dorsal body (bivium) is cream in colour with
large beige dots and entirely covered with numerous conical papillae. Trivium (ventral surface)
is also beige in colour. The bivium is demarcated from the trivium by a row of large papillae.
The anus is terminal and the ventrally located mouth is surrounded by a circle of 18 large brown
tentacles. The live and processed forms of Thelenota anax are illustrated in Figure 30a and
Figure 30b.
Figure 30a: Thelenota anax – Live Figure 30b: Thelenota anax - Processed
The percentage length and weight losses (an average) of Thelenota anax in the major processing
steps are summarized in table 23 and the graphical relationship is illustrated in Figure 31.
Table 23: Percentage length and weight changes of T. anax on processing

1 Fresh specimens 100 (24.8 ± 3.6 *) 100.00 (314.81 ± 68.16* )
2 Evisceration (gutted) 36.01 ± 8.80
3 First boiling 58.1 ± 9.5 22.41 ± 4.98
4 Second boiling 46.3 ± 6.6 9.73 ± 2.25
6 Dried product 35.5 ± 4.9 6.23 ± 1.46
*This indicates the real length / or weight value
20.0 125
Weight after first boiling

Length after first boiling
y = 0.064x + 12.52 y = 0.381x + 25.92
100
R² = 0.022 R² = 0.537
15.0 75
(cm)
(g)
50
10.0 25
0
5.0
50 100 150 200 250
15.0 25.0 35.0 45.0 Gutted weight (g)
Initial length (cm)
16.0 60
Weight after second

y = 0.069x + 9.574
Length after second
y = 0.221x + 5.289
R² = 0.054 R² = 0.788
boiling (cm)
12.0 40
boiling (g)
8.0 20
4.0 0
15.0 25.0 35.0 45.0 50 100 150 200 250
Initial length (cm) Gutted weight (g)
16.0 50 y = 0.149x + 6.456
Length after initial first day
y = 0.043x + 8.205
Weight after first drying
40 R² = 0.707
R² = 0.030
12.0 30
drying (cm)
20
(g)
10
8.0 0
50 100 150 200 250
4.0
Gutted weight (g)
15.0 25.0 35.0 45.0
initial length (cm)
12.0 40 y = 0.134x + 4.045

Weight of final product (g)
y = 0.056x + 7.257
R² = 0.072 30 R² = 0.677
9.0
drying (cm)
20
6.0 10
0
3.0 50 100 150 200 250
15.0 25.0 35.0 45.0 Gutted weight (g)
Initial length (cm)
Figure 31: Length and weight changes of Thelenota anax in the major steps of processing
Thelenota anax when it is processed to beche –de-mer.
5.3.4. Length and weight changes of Holothuria atra

Holothuria atra has an elongated cylindrical body with rounded ends and this species is locally
known as Nari attaya. Tables and rosettes are the most predominant spicules in the tegument.
The body is entirely black. A red fluid is secreted upon rubbing the body surface vigorously and
when live specimens are handled, a red fluid stains the hand. The live and processed forms of
Holothiria atra is illustrated in Figure 32a and Figure 32b.
Figure 32a: Holothuria atra – Live Figure 32b: Holothuria atra - Processed
The percentage length and weight losses (an average) of Holothuria atra in the major processing
steps are summarized in Table 24 and the graphical relationship is illustrated in Figure 33.
Table 24: Percentage length and weight changes of H. atra on processing

1 Fresh specimens 100 (28.3 ± 7.5 *) 100.00 (440.76 ± 219.12* )
3 First boiling 60.5 ± 18.6 25.99 ± 12.74
4 Second boiling 51.9 ± 12.2 20.98 ± 10.01
6 Dried product 43.6 ± 9.5 9.46 ± 4.68
*This indicates the real length / or weight values
40.0 400

y = 0.288x + 8.539 300
30.0 y = 0.618x - 44.79
R² = 0.163
200 R² = 0.942
20.0
(cm)
(g)
10.0 100
0.0 0
10.0 30.0 50.0 70.0 0 200 400 600

30.0 300
Weight after second

y = 0.274x + 6.415
Length after second
y = 0.506x - 37.48
R² = 0.350
boiling (g)
boiling (cm)
20.0 200 R² = 0.945
10.0 100
0.0 0
10.0 30.0 50.0 70.0 0 200 400 600
30.0 200
Weight after initial drying
y = 0.245x + 5.417 y = 0.373x - 34.85

Length after initial drying
150
20.0 R² = 0.349 R² = 0.929
100
(g)
10.0
(cm)
50
0.0 0
10.0 30.0 50.0 70.0 0 200 400 600
30.0 160
Weight of final product (g)
y = 0.241x - 19.95
y = 0.299x + 3.458
R² = 0.929
R² = 0.464 120
20.0
80
drying (cm)
10.0 40
0
0.0
0 200 400 600
10.0 30.0 50.0 70.0
Figure 33: Length and weight changes of Holothuria atra in the major steps of processing
Holoyhuria atra when it is processed to beche –de-mer.
5.3.5. Length and weight changes of Bohadschia sp 1

This species is locally known as Sudunool attaya and has a short and thick body with the
slightly flattened ventral surface. Body colour is highly variable usually light brown with small
brown dots. White sticky threads are expelled when they are disturbed. Spicules are in the form
of spinose and branched rods. The live and processed forms of Bohadschia sp 1is illustrated in
Figure 34a and Figure 34b.
Figure 34a: Bohadschia sp 1– Live Figure 34b: Bohadschia sp 1- Processed
The percentage length and weight losses (an average) of Bohadschia sp 1in the major processing
steps are summarized in Table 25 and the graphical relationship is illustrated in Figure 35.
Table 25: Percentage length and weight changes of Bohadschia sp 1on processing
1 Fresh specimens 100 (22.6 ± 2.7 *) 100.00 (590.33 ± 152.54* )
3 First boiling 69.4 ± 5.5 30.97 ± 8.30
4 Second boiling 60.9 ± 4.6 24.68 ± 6.44
6 Dried product 52.8 ± 5.1 10.28 ± 2.65
*This indicates the real length / or weight values
25.0 y = 0.490x + 4.541 400

y = 0.551x - 28.84
20.0 R² = 0.613 300 R² = 0.844
15.0 200
(cm)
(g)
10.0 100
5.0 0
10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 0 500 1000
Initial length (cm)
Gutted weight (g)
20.0 300
Length after second
y = 0.465x + 3.181 y = 0.436x - 21.78
weight after second

16.0
R² = 0.636 R² = 0.845
boiling (cm)
200
boiling (g)
12.0
8.0
100
4.0
0.0 0
10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 0 200 400 600 800
20.0 200
Weight after initial drying
Length after initial drying
y = 0.465x + 3.181 y = 0.297x - 24.52

16.0 150
R² = 0.636 R² = 0.839
12.0
100
(cm)
(g)
8.0
4.0 50
0.0 0
10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 0 200 400 600 800
20.0 120
Weight after final drying (g)
Length after final drying (cm)
y = 0.404x + 3.294 y = 0.187x - 10.65

16.0 R² = 0.577 R² = 0.782
90
12.0
60
8.0
4.0 30
0.0
0
10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0
0 200 Gutted400
weight (g)
600 800
Initial length (cm)
Figure 35: Length and weight changes of Bohadschia sp 1 in the major steps of processing
Bohadschia sp 1 when it is processed to beche –de-mer.
5.3.6. Information on first sexual maturity

Table 26 summarizes the length and weight at first sexual maturity of selected four species of sea
cucumbers and this is based on the published literature and the research on reproductive
biological studies.
Table 26: Length (cm) and weight (g) of first sexual maturity
No Species Length at first maturity Weight at first maturity
(cm) (g)
1 Stichopus chloronotus 15.5 100
2 Thelenota anax 25 180
3 Holothuria atra 16. 5 160
4 Bohadschia sp 1 20 290
5.3.7. Proposed size limits for landings and exports
An attempt was made to estimate the minimum landing size for the above sea cucumber species
based on the information on first sexual maturity. Then these estimated values were in
cooperated with the processing data to verify the size at landings. The estimated minimum
landing size and the processing sizes on each species is summarized in Table 27.
Table 27: The estimated minimum landing size and processing size (length (cm) and weight (g)
No Species Estimated Estimated Estimated Estimated
minimum minimum minimum minimum
landing processing landing gutted processing
length (cm) length (cm) weight (g) weight (g)
1 Stichopus chloronotus 16 6.5 100 10
2 Thelenota anax 26 8.5 180 27
3 Holothuria atra 17 8.0 160 15
4 Bohadschia sp 1 21 10.6 290 45
5.4. Discussion
As shown in similar studies, the proportion of weight loss through processing varied markedly
among species. If export data of dried length and weights of sea cucumbers are to be converted
to fresh (landing) weight, it is far more accurate to convert data on a species-by-species basis
than to use one approximate factor to convert weights of all species combined. Even within
genera, we found large variations in conversion factors for lengths and weights.
According to our findings, the dried Stichopus cloronotus represented just 3.3 percent of their
initial body weight concurs closely with 3.9 per cent stated by Skewes (2004). According to
Skewes (2004), the weight of dried H. atra ranges from 2.6 – 7.7 percent of its live weight but
this study reported the less weight loss than him. It is difficult to make any comparison for
Thelenota anax and Bohadschia sp 1 due to unavailability of published literature.
However, the live weight relationships were generally more variable (lower R2) than the gutted
weight relationships. This variability in live weight can be attributed to variable amounts of
water and sediment in the digestive track and the respiratory tree (Sewell, 1991) and means that
live wet weight is a less reliable estimate of somatic weight than gutted weight.
By considering the information of size at first maturity of each species and changes in
processing, we were able to determine the minimum landing size for selected sea cucumber
species. For the means of better management, it was decided to correlate the changes in weight
and length during processing. Minimum landing size for both fresh and processed product was
estimated and this will help to strength the monitoring programme both at the landing as well as
exporting. Further, findings of parts of this study will help formulate new management practices.
5.5. Benefits
These relationships will be useful for the stock assessment, management and monitoring of the
beche-de-mer fishery in Sri Lanka. The regressions of individual weights will be used to convert
live weights from size frequencies gathered in the field during population surveys and catch
monitoring to produce comparable weights for gutted weight and processed weight. This will be
used for producing TACs in gutted weight and the equivalent likely processed product weight.
The average recovery rates provide an insight into the efficiency of the processing
methodologies as they now stand, for comparison with data from other areas and historical data
and for assessing the effect of any future changes in processing techniques.
The conversion ratios contained herein are the best estimator for converting pooled catch data
from one processed state to another, where the size frequency of the catch is not known.
SECTION 6
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SEA
CUCUMBER FISHERIES
MANAGEMENT
6.1. Major concepts for management
It is necessary to have better management plan to ensure sustained yields for fishers. This means
that the exploitation today does not take away potential income resources from future
generations in Sri Lanka. Many sea cucumber fisheries worldwide have experienced “boom-and-
bust” cycles (Lovatelli et al. 2004), where fishing pressure and revenues increase over several
years then the stocks become quickly depleted to states where fishers can no longer make profit
and fishing activity ceases for many years. A recent example of this is the sea cucumber fishery
in Egypt, which collapsed after just four years of intensive fishing (Lawrence et al. 2004, Hasan
2005).
In Sri Lanka, the fishery is open access and no any regulation or precautionary approach was
adapted so far except issuing licenses for diving and transportation. Further to avoid the
exploitation of undersized individuals, the exporters are not allowed to export the product if it
exceeds 200 pieces for 1kg. Hence the fishery is totally an unregulated. Recently there are some
signs of population depletion, including lower volumes of high value species and fishers having
to travel further, and concerns were raised regarding the sustainability of the fishery. The results
of the underwater surveys confirm the risk of the overexploitation of some sea cucumber species.
In the context of fishery sustainability, we need to take immediate management measures
specially to east coast.
1. It is a need to ban the day diving activities for some period in the east coast of Sri Lanka
to safeguard the further depletion of stocks. This suggestion is based on the outcomes of
the two underwater surveys carried out in the east coast in 2008 and 2009. However,
before implementing this measure, it needs to have detail discussion with all the
stakeholders. To some, this scenario may seem sensationalist. But the reality is that many
national fishery authorities have recently had to instigate moratoriums on fishing sea
cucumbers because stocks became depleted through unregulated or imprudent fishing. In
the past decade, commercial fishing of sea cucumbers has been banned in Solomon
Islands, Palau, Vanuatu, Tonga, and for some species in Fiji and Australia (Kinch et al.
2008).
2. Another concept that we need to pay our attention is the need to maintain the
reproductive capacity of sea cucumbers populations. Sea cucumbers are sedentary and
gonochoric — i.e. they move relatively slowly and individuals are male or female, not
hermaphroditic. This means that they must find each other, or get close to each other,
during spawning periods. If animals are too far apart, they may not find mates in
spawning periods or the sperm released from males is too far from females to
successfully fertilize the oocytes (unfertilized eggs) that they expel. When this occurs, the
reproduction from those populations fails to compensate for annual mortality of animals,
and the population declines to a point where the animals become locally extinct or
reproductively extinct — i.e. some individuals may still exist but there is no effective
reproduction. This effect is called the Allee effect (Allee 1938) or ‘depensation’, and is
believed to be a primary cause of collapse of many invertebrate fisheries, particularly
sedentary groups. In some sea cucumber fisheries, negligent over-fishing depleted the
populations to levels at which they could not recover, even 50 years after fishing stopped
(Battaglene and Bell 2004). Obviously, it is valuable to know the density at which
populations need to be maintained to allow successful reproduction. However, such
density thresholds are poorly known for sea cucumbers. Bell et al. (2008) overview the
scant research on minimum viable densities for successful fertilization in sea cucumbers
and speculate that the “threshold densities to avoid depensation for most tropical sea
cucumbers will be in the range of 10 to 50 individuals ha-1 over substantial areas,
depending on species and location”. The management of the sea cucumber fisheries in Sri
Lanka should therefore evaluate densities of adult sea cucumbers of each species
regularly and gauge whether sufficient numbers of dense populations exist in the fishery
to ensure that populations will be replenished after the losses from fishing
3. Another management goal should be to maximize the money earned by fishers for each
animal collected. This means preventing the capture of small animals, and two germane
points should be considered. Firstly, larger animals give greater returns to fishers because
they are heavier and the sale price and export price is governed by weight, not numbers
of individuals. Secondly, larger bêche-de- mer command much higher prices than smaller
pieces per kilogram. Thus, a one-kilogram animal may be worth ten times the value of an
animal harvested at 250 grams. In this context, minimum legal size limits provide better
long term benefits for all stakeholders with commercial interests because the resource is
exploited in a way that maximizes profit
4. In a broader context, fisheries management should ensure that the animals can play their
natural role in maintaining ecosystem health. Thus, a precautionary approach links
fisheries management intimately with general environmental management (FAO 1996).
Sea cucumbers consume detritus, made up of dead organic matter like decaying algae,
sea grass and bacteria. They convert these ‘waste’ materials into animal flesh, that can re-
enter the food chain, and they convert some of the organic matter into dissolved nutrients
that can be re-used by reef flora (Uthicke, 2001). Thus, sea cucumbers play an important
role in recycling nutrients in marine eco systems. Moreover, some species bury into
sediments at some times of the day and, in doing so, are believed to contribute to
sediment health by aerating the surface layers. Therefore, although this has only been
demonstrated at very small scales, maintaining adequate numbers of sea cucumbers
should improve the health of the shallow marine eco systems.
5. The important management goal should be to maintain and improve the biodiversity
values of marine eco systems. Tourist operators, scientists and conservation groups have
interests in communities that are speciose. The management plan for these sea cucumber
fisheries should ensure that rare species or those vulnerable to local extinction, are
preserved on each area. This requires underwater assessments to document species
richness and nominate rare species. So it is recommended to assess the sea cucumber
population at least two years interval through underwater resource assessment. The
responsibility of the management authorities is then to prohibit fishing of rare species and
maintain biodiversity by closing fishing of certain commercial species that become
threaten.
6. It is suggested to develop a management plan and test it. This starts with establishing the
desired outcomes of the management (i.e. what are the goals?). Decisions are then made
about what management regulations are best suited to the fishery to achieve the outcomes
and what actions are needed by the managers to implement and sustain them. The last
phase involves a critical appraisal some time later (e.g., some years after implementing
the management rules) of whether the management scheme delivered the desired
outcomes. For example, the fishery service should see if the average size of exported sea
cucumbers is larger and whether breeding populations are returning to healthier densities.
This approach is needed especially when biological and ecological information on the
species is limited, as is the general case for sea cucumbers.
6.2. Management recommendations
The recommendations are guided by the general goals outlined in the previous section. The
recommendations are based on findings from the different research components of the project
and published results and accounts from other similar fisheries. In this chapter two sets of
management recommendations are proposed:
(1) Actions should be taken by the fisheries services (Ministry of Fisheries, Department of
Fisheries)
(2) Fishery regulations that should be imposed on the fishers and processors.
Most of the proposed regulations are already being applied in other countries, and we do not
present these as new ideas.
A – Actions by the Fisheries Service (Ministry of Fisheries/ Department of Fisheries/

NARA)
1. Strengthen education and communication with fishers

This does not suggest that fishers don’t know anything and they are unaware of the fishery rules.
It is best to view this as a need for more interactions between fisheries officers and fishers, than a
lack of comprehension by fishers.
An education plan should also be more than just a campaign to tell fishers and processors about
the fishery rules. It is necessary to communicate with fishers and processors, and this should be
formally scheduled to ensure that all fishers are told the fishery regulations and each receives
some face-to-face education about sea cucumbers, the fishery, and the status of stocks. It should
involve discussion between government officers (Fisheries Inspectors, Researches in NARA),
and fishers about the growth and reproductive biology of the species in non-scientific terms. The
education program should ensure that fishers understand how stocks replenish themselves after
being fished, how old animals are that they are fishing, and the sizes at which animals mature.
Only through this understanding they will appreciate the need for size limits and fishing reserves
and be prepared to respect them. All of the stakeholders should be educated to understand why
the fishery regulations are in place and how each regulation acts to improve the benefits for all
stakeholders.
A communication plan should modify periodically by which fishery officers and other agents
interact with fishers. Fishers and processors should be helped to receive newsletters, both local
and regional, and information aids like identification guides. Feedback should be gathered from
the fishers about changes in the species, sizes, catch rates, and sites where they fish, and this is
best done using organized data sheets so the information can be later compiled and shared. The
communication strategy should also work the other way — to inform fishers about new studies
or the evolution in exports or resource densities.
2. Instruct and train customs officers to record exports for species separately
It has been a recurrent key recommendation from international workshops that exports of bêche-
de-mer from countries must be recorded by species, not species groups (Lovatelli et al. 2004,
Friedman et al. 2008). Export data is easy and cost-effective to collect when compared to field
data or sociological surveys. It can provide valuable insights into changes in the amount and
species being collected by fishers, which can serve as cost-effective indicators of overfishing.
However, it is impossible to use export data as indicators for assessing evolution in fishing when
records are taken for species groups instead of species. The weights of exported bêche-de-mer
must be recorded for each species.
Unfortunately, exports of bêche-de-mer from Sri Lanka are recorded only in broad categories of
species groups. This is inadequate for fishery management, and does not conform to the
standards requested by the United Nations-FAO for global monitoring of fishery captures
(Lovatelli et al., 2004). While it is true that dried sea cucumbers are difficult to identify, this task
can be made easy with some brief training by fishery officers. Identification of bêche-de-mer is
not an impossible task. It is possible to prepare a poster or identification cards for custom
officers to help them recall names of species based on dried bêche-de-mer.
3. Help to improve the quality of processing by fishers

Some of the value of bêche-de-mer is attributed to the size of the animals but much of the value
can be gained or lost through the boiling and drying stages. Profit will be lost if sea cucumbers
are handled roughly, boiled too long or too hot, or not dried well enough. Processors are quite
aware of good techniques for handling, boiling and drying sea cucumbers to achieve a top quality
bêche-de-mer. But some do not use good processing methods, and this was a frequent complaint
of exporters. The relevant authorities should promote the training of fishers in optimum methods
of processing sea cucumbers into bêche-demer and this should involve practical workshops
organized by the Ministry of Fisheries / Department of Fisheries. Improved processing by fishers
will allow greater ‘value adding’ to harvested animals and increase the overall economic gains
from the same amount of captured animals. At the same time, it will avoid wasted value of
bêche-de-mer that can come with poor processing. While many processors simply want to buy
uncooked sea cucumbers so they can do the boiling and drying themselves.
4. Develop a schedule for surveillance and inspections
The responsible government Authorities (Ministry of Fisheries/ Department of Fisheries) should
establish a periodicity for inspecting catches and exports of sea cucumbers. It should be made
clear who will do the inspections and how often.
Inspecting processed and semi-processed sea cucumbers at processing centers will generally be
easier than inspecting landings of fishers. There are many fewer processors, and they are easier
to contact than fishers. Inspecting the sizes and species of sea cucumbers at processing centers
will force processors to buy only animals that are sanctioned by the management plan. The
processors will naturally impose these same restrictions on the product they buy from fishers.
Thus, fishers will be forced to leave certain species and small animals because all processors will
refuse to buy them, rather than through the risk of being inspected by government agents.
Nonetheless, some inspections of fishers should also take place, and a number of these
inspections should be scheduled each year.
Enforcement of the fishery regulations (recommended below) should be strict and severe. It
should establish penalties for the sale or purchase of animals that are under the size limit or on a
list of prohibited species, and for the sale or purchase of sea cucumbers from unlicensed fishers.
Firm penalties will benefit processors, the stocks, and eventually fishers too.
5. Develop a plan for monitoring wild stocks and fishing

The relevant government bodies (Ministry of Fisheries/ Department of Fisheries / NARA) should
commit to conducting a predetermined number of landing surveys every year. These are not time
consuming, and require little equipment and technical capacity.
The form in Appendix 1 can be used for recording data. The data should be entered into a
database and analyzed each year to examine changes in CPUE, species collected and size
frequencies of the animals.
Surveying the sea cucumber populations in the field requires a great deal of equipment and some
technical competence. We recommend that it is necessary to schedule to re-census sites every 2
to 3 years. There should also be predefined limits of acceptable stock abundance and
predetermined actions to take if stocks have declined lower than the limits. Some new sites, not
covered in the current project, could be surveyed in addition to re-censusing some of the same
sites described here. The field evaluations will provide a basis for removing some species from
the list of permitted species if stocks appear depleted, and conversely for reinstating other
species onto the list if their populations have recovered to predetermined levels at which they
could be fished again.
B – Regulations imposed on fishers
6. Impose conservative size limits for fresh (unboiled) and dried sea cucumbers
Minimum legal size limits should be placed on both dried and fresh sea cucumbers. Sizes will be
much easier to verify on the dried product (bêche-de-mer) than on fresh animals. However,
fishers generally agreed that size limits should also apply to live animals, rather than caught,
gutted or salted animals. A simple plastic ruler with graduations corresponding to size limits of
species would be the easiest tool for fishers to use to verify sizes of animals in the water. This
could easily have small colour photographs next to the graduation marks. Body length rather
than body weight seemed the preferred metric by stakeholders to regulate minimum size limits.
The minimum legal size limits should best be based on studies on the size at first sexual maturity
of sea cucumbers, rather than opinions by fishers and processors about what are “good sized
animals”. As a minimum, the L90 (estimated body length at which 90% of the population is
mature) from the size-at-maturity analysis curves could be used as the minimum legal size. As
best practice, the size limits should be large enough such that animals can have at least one year
to spawn after reaching maturity. Therefore, a more conservative approach would be to add some
centimeters to the L90 so that most animals have a year of protection before reaching legal
fishing size.
There may be some benefit in grouping species that have similar estimated size limits, rather
than having many different sizes for fishers and processors to remember. This will involve a
trade-off between loss of some rigor of the optimum size based on size-at-maturity studies and
gains in simplicity of the size limits. For example, there are about 20 species that are fished in
Sri Lanka but perhaps these could be allocated into 6 to 8 size-limit groups. But at the beginning,
we can practice this regulation for some selected species.
7. Establish a list of species permitted to be caught and sold

There are some species that are naturally very uncommon (i.e. ‘rare’) in and others that appear to
have become uncommon through excessive fishing. We observed that both groups of species are
fished in Sri Lanka; i.e. some fishers do occasionally collect a few individuals of ‘rare’ species
even ones that we have not recorded in this study. A list of species permissible for capture, sale
and export should therefore be established and set in the management plan. It should also seem
logical to fishers that only common species should be exploited. Species that are naturally very
uncommon, or ‘rare’, should be prohibited from capture to preserve biodiversity on reefs; a goal
of management discussed above and an explicit consideration for the precautionary approach to
fishery management (FAO 1996).
Likewise, species with depleted stocks should also be prohibited from capture to allow some
years for their breeding populations to recover to abundance levels that can again withstand some
light fishing pressure.
In order to avoid ambiguity as to the origin of processed sea cucumbers for export, it would be
best to establish the same list of permissible species to all over the country. Those species not on
the list should not be collected, sold, purchased or exported. Fishers and processors should also
understand that the list will be re-evaluated periodically — species may be added or removed
depending on field population surveys.
There were several species that appear to be naturally rare, at least in terms of our transect
surveys, and some for which we did not find any individuals but they are reported to exist in
Sri Lanka. Several of these very uncommon species could be large enough and have thick
enough body walls to be of interest to fishers.
Some species are, therefore, rather vulnerable to over-exploitation and should be management
conservatively, in ways that maintain sufficient breeding populations on reefs so populations can
replenish themselves after losses from fishing.
Populations of Actinopyga mauritiana Holothuria scabra, Holothuria fuscogilva, Holothuria
nobilis and Holothuria sp (pentard) also appear low to very low at most localities, but there are
still a small number of dense or moderately dense breeding sub-populations. A conservative
measure would be to ban fishing of these species now.
Alternatively, it could impose large minimum size limits on these species in particular, and
monitor stocks in the coming years. At the next review of the list of permissible commercial
species, these species should be evaluated in close detail.
The advantage of species-specific closures is that fishers can still collect other species. We
encourage an adaptive process by which species can be added or removed depending on new
information about stocks. We also recommend a conservative approach; that is, remove species
from the list of those that fishers can collect if stocks appear low — don’t wait until stocks are
depleted. This will avoid the need for restocking, which is a very costly intervention that has its
own problems of altering the natural genetic variation of populations and hurdles of research on
release strategies.
8. Fishers licensed and buyers licensed
As is currently practiced, all commercial fishers must obtain a license from the Department of
Fisheries in order to carry out sea cucumber fishing activities. Moreover, it would be best to have
separate permits or ‘concessions’ for collecting and selling sea cucumbers in particular.
The separate permits for fishing sea cucumbers would serve to better regulate the impact of
fishing, since this would mean that not all fishers can harvest sea cucumbers. That is, it would
limit opportunistic shifting of resources by fishers. The Department of Fisheries would also
better know who is fishing this resource, which would simplify the communication of
information about this fishery.
Likewise, buyers, processors and exporters should be licensed for those activities. In the same
way as for fishers, a license for processors and the obligation to submit logbooks would aid in
the regulation and communication of the fishery.
For example, those fishers or processors who do not submit logbooks, are caught with undersized
animals, or are caught with prohibited species could be refused a license the following year.
9. Introduce logbook system to collect catch data

We need to think about the collection of catch data from fishers, collectors and processors
regularly. For this it is good to implement a log book system and a procedure to monitor it. It
needs to implement new regulations regarding this and if somebody fails to submit the logbook,
they are not issued fishing license for the following year. By this way, it is easy to obtain the data
on regular basis and it will provide time-series analyses of evolution in catches among the
regions.
10. Limited entry – restrict the number of licensed fishers

The fishers and the processors viewed that it is better to limits on the number of fishers licensed
to collect and sell sea cucumbers. The survey results shows that stocks of some species are
relatively healthy, stocks of many others appear vulnerable to being depleted if fishing effort is
not reduced. We recommend that it needs to restrict the number of licenses issued to fishers as a
means of reducing total fishing effort. Based simply on the average population abundances of
sea cucumbers, we believe the number of licenses for fishing sea cucumbers should be restricted.
The reducing the number of licensed could be done through inspection of annual logbooks and
only renewing licenses to fishers who are seriously fishing sea cucumbers ( i.e. fishers regularly
collecting sea cucumbers) and also maintaining and submitting the logbook. However, we
believe that this should not mean only issuing license to fishers that intensively fish sea
cucumbers, or those which only fish sea cucumbers. It will be far better for fishers to be able to
harvest other resources, so that they have some ‘resilience’ to changes in the markets or resource,
than to encourage fishers to only exploit one resource. A different approach would be to impose
the size limits, species-specific closures and reporting rules and renew licenses only to those
fishers that adhere to the regulations.
11. Catch reporting and sale reporting by fishers and processors

Obviously, the fishery will be best managed if the relevant authorities have accurate and timely
data on catches. This data can show variations in CPUE and species captured over time and
among locations. This should best be achieved by forcing fishers to complete logbooks of daily
catches and submit them each semester or year as a condition of license renewal. As mentioned
earlier, all of the processors said they had either been in contact with, or purchased sea
cucumbers from, unlicensed fishers. This makes management harder since the number of fishers
is unknown and not everyone can be informed about the fishery regulations.
Fishing by unlicensed fishers also undermines fishers’ confidence in the way in which the fishery
is managed and their willingness to adhere to regulations. For example, they can start to ask
“why should I be restricted to catching certain sizes and reporting if others are not?” One way to
reduce the incidence of unlicensed fishing is to oblige processors / collectors to complete
purchase receipts provided by the Ministry of Fisheries / Department of fisheries each time they
buy sea cucumbers. The processors should record the fisher’s name and license number and have
the fisher sign the receipt. In theory, unlicensed fishers should then not be able to sell to
processors and at the same time we can collect the accurate catch data. The receipts should
include weights for each species of animal sold, and these measurements are generally made by
the processors anyway. The department should be strict about the non-renewal of licenses to
fishers and non-renewal of buyers’ licenses if reporting is inadequate. If all processors believe
that the rules will be applied to all, then they will be more likely to refuse purchasing sea
cucumber if they know that other processors cannot buy them either.
In principle, catch quotas should be based on a reasonable estimate of the total standing stock of
the resource in the fishery and a reasonable estimate of the fishing mortality that the stock can
sustain without diminishing population size. An even more important hurdle with quotas is
determining whether they are set per person (individual quotas) or apply to the whole fishery.
Having a quota for the whole fishery (a ‘global’ quota), instead of individual quotas, means that
industrialized fishers can catch the majority of the catch early and leave other small-scale fishers
without a livelihood for the rest of the year after the quota has been reached. So it seems that the
allocation and equity of individual quotas among fishers is also problematic. Further, it seems
that quotas would be hard to administer.
Seasonal closures can be used in other types of fisheries for two purposes: (1) to prevent fishing
of animals during seasons when they are more vulnerable to capture, such as when animals
aggregate to spawn or move to exposed sites on reefs to spawn, and (2) to limit the amount of
days in a year that fishers have to collect the animals. The first use does not apply to the vast
majority of sea cucumbers, because they do not aggregate (other than in loose pairs or trios) nor
move to more visible places to spawn. The second is fine, except that it deprives fishers of
earning an income for some months. As shown in this study, many fishers rely on sea cucumbers
as their primary source of income. Fishing closures already exist in varying degrees specially
due to monsoon.
Rotational closures are used in some well-organized fisheries where there are few fishing groups
and where there are clear access rights over fishing grounds. Examples of rotational closures in
sea cucumber fisheries can be found at the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland. However,
rotational closures would be problematic for a number of reasons. The most cited problem was
how to manage the surveillance of the fishing zones where there are many fishers and many of
the sites are many kilometers offshore. Another commonly argued problem was the resources
needed to demarcate, and mark, the various fishing zones. Further the annual rotational closures
would mean the fishers in a locality were all fishing in a smaller area each year, so quotas would
need to be set for each zone to ensure the resource was not depleted.
6.3. Conclusion
The sea cucumber fisheries in Sri Lanka are multi-species in nature. The resource needs fisheries
management plans that consider the perpetuity of each species in the context of meta population
structure of stocks. The project’s field surveys showed that the community composition varied
greatly among the survey sites and that sea cucumbers were not abundant at all sites. Resource
managers should seek to ensure that there are at least some sites in each region that have dense
breeding populations. These populations can act as source sites for neighboring areas where
abundances may be low.
There were few study sites where valuable sea cucumbers were very abundant. Some
commercial species were quite infrequent in our field surveys and are sought after by processors.
Our study suggests that populations of Actinopyga mauritiana Holothuria scabra, Holothuria
fuscogilva, Holothuria nobilis and Holothuria sp (pentard) are too low to support further
exploitation.
Our field surveys and fishery-dependent surveys show that at least 20 species of sea cucumber
are collected by fishers and about 10 to 12 of these are collected commonly. The species of high
value are sought after by processors, but some species were not well represented in the landings
of fishers. This tends to suggest that stocks of these species are depleted, in line with results from
our field studies.
Training in processing is most needed. Some animals are collected at a small size, near or below
the size at first maturity estimated by Conand (1993). This means there is some ‘recruitment
overfishing’. Size limits must be implemented avoid this phenomena and it should be large
enough to protect animals to maturity and allow them at least another year to contribute to
spawning. If the taking of small animals was more evident, more education of fishers by fishery
officers is needed.
The immediate implementation of proper management plan is must to ensure the sustainability of
this resource in future.
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Appendix 1
UNDERWATER RTESOURCE SURVEY - SURVEY DATA SHEET
Day Diving Night Diving
Site ID
Site Coordinates
Latitudes
Longitudes
GPS No
Date DD MM YY
Time
Name of the Observer
Name of the Recorder
In Time
Out Time
Water Depth (m)
Visibility
Water Current
Habitat Type
Number
Collection of of the
gut samples sampling
Sea Cucumber / Chank species Length (cm) Weight (g) (Y/N) bottle
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Remarks
FRAME SURVEY DATA SHEET
SRI LANKA – FAO/CIDA – FRAME SURVEY FOR CHANK AND SEA CUCUMBER FISHERIES
FORM TYPE: SCNK FORM NO:

Data Collector: ________________________________
Fisheries
District:
FI Division: Date: ____/_____/_______
Location:
FISHING UNIT
Owner(s): Crew:
Reg.No: Type of craft:
License No. Length (ft): HP:
FISHING METHOD(S) FISHING SEASON IN CURRENT LOCATION

Target species (Months)
Sea cucumber: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1
0 1 2
Chank:
Day fishing: Night fishing: SEASON IN OTHER LOCATION
Location:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1
0 1 2
ONBOARD EQUIPMENT
--------- Diving ---------
GPS Light Source SCUBA SKIN Other equipment
Other relevant information

CATCH AND EFFORT MONITORING SHEET
1 Date
2 Landing site
3 Total number of boats operated
4 Total number of boats sampled
5 Boat Number
6 Depature [Time]
7 Arrival [Time]
8 True diving Time [Hours]
9 Number of diver / divers per boat
10 Number of tanks per diver
11 Average Fishing / diving depth [m]
12 Total income
13 Fuel cost
14 Share of the diver
Catch / Species
15 Holothuria scabra
16 Holothuria spinifera
17 Holothuria atra
18 Holothuria edulis
19 Holothuria fuscogilva
20 Holothuria nobilis
21 Holothuria sp(pentard)
22 Actinopyga miliaris
23 Actinopyga mauritiana
24 Actinopyga echinites
25 Bohadschia argus
26 Bohadschia marmorata
27 Bohadschia similis
28 Bohadschia sp 1
29 Thelenota ananas
30 Thelenota anax
31 Stichopus chloronotus
32 Stichopus herrmanni
33 Acaudina molpadioides
Others
34 Chanks
35 by-catch
LENGTH AND WEIGHT DATA SHEET
Date Landing site
Boat No Species Length (cm) Un-gutted weight (g) Gutted weight (g)
SEA CUCUMBER AND CHANK - BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES DATA SHEET
Date Landing site
Species Code Length (cm) Un-gutted weight (g) Gutted weight (g)

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2008 / 2009

Status and Management of Sea

Resources, Mr. Pathirana, Director General, Department of Fisheries, Mr. K. Haputhanthri,

during the field survey activities.

exporters for giving us so much support during these activities.

3. Fishery Independent Surveys 11

3.1. Methodology for underwater visual survey on sea cucumbers 11

3.1.1. Personnel and training 12

3.1.2. Survey area and site selection 14

3.1.3. Survey type 15

3.1.4. Survey area 15

3.1.5. Survey time 17

3.1.6. Sampling design 18

3.1.7. Pilot Study 18

3.1.8. Field Sampling 19

3.1.9. Species identification 21

3.1.10. Size and weight measurements 21

3.1.11. Data Management 22

3.1.12. Data analysis 23

3.2. Results East coast underwater visual survey (Part 1) 26

3.2.1. Survey area 27

3.2.2. Species observed 27

3.2.4. Biomass Estimate 33

3.2.5. MSY and Total Allowable Catch (TACs) Estimates 35

3.2.6. Distribution of sea cucumbers in study area 36

3.3. Results East coast underwater visual survey (Part 2) 37

3.3.1. Survey area 38

3.3.2. Species observed 38

3.3.3. Abundance Estimate 40

3.3.4. Biomass Estimate 41

3.3.5. MSY and Total Allowable Catch (TACs) Estimates 41

3.3.6. Distribution of sea cucumbers in study area 42

3.4. Results North West coast underwater visual survey (Part 1) 43

3.3.1. Survey area 44

3.3.2. Species observed 44

3.3.3. Abundance Estimate 45

3.3.4. Biomass Estimate 46

3.3.5. MSY and Total Allowable Catch (TACs) Estimates 47

3.3.6. Distribution of sea cucumbers in study area 48

3.5. Results North West coast underwater visual survey (Part 2) 49

3.3.1. Survey area

3.3.2. Species observed

3.3.3. Abundance Estimate

3.3.4. Biomass Estimate

3.3.5. MSY and Total Allowable Catch (TACs) Estimates

4. Fishery Dependent Surveys 51

4.1. Methodology for Fishery Dependent survey on sea cucumbers 51

4.1.1. Study area 52

4.1.2. Frame survey 52

4.1.3. Catch and Effort data collection 52

4.1.4. Data analysis 54

4.2. Results of Fishery Dependent Surveys 54

4.2.1. Results of the frame survey 55

4.2.2. Fishing season 55

4.2.3. Seasonal migration 56

4.2.3. Fishing crafts 56

4.2.4. Fishing gear 57

4.2.5. Species dominance in the commercial catches 57