The sea cucumber resources and fisheries management in the Western Indian Ocean: Current status and preliminary results from a WIOMSA regional research project

摘要

The sea cucumber fisheries of the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) have rapidly developed in the last decade and there is currently a general concern by national and international agencies (Fisheries depts, FAO, CITES, ...) about better management and conservation of these fisheries. This has led to the initiation of a regional project with funding from the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) for a 3-year multidisciplinary research to be carried out in Kenya, Madagascar, La Reunion, Seychelles and Tanzania. This paper presents a summary of the initial assessment of this study on the state of knowledge on sea cucumbers. It includes a review of the current status of the resources in each country; the exploitation level shows a gradient, from 0 in La Reunion, to high levels of exploitation with variable stock depletion in the other countries. The effec-tiveness of fishery management programs in each country is also assessed including an analysis of the fishery statistics for the WIO. A synthesis of the main biological parameters of relevance to management for the commer-cial species (including distribution and abundance, reproduction, recruitment and catches), as well as the main socio-economic information (including the status of fishers, processing, collectors, local and international mar-kets) is presented. The major outcome of the project will be a better understanding of the sea cucumber resources of the region and the key management issues that will form the baseline management priorities for the region.