Galaxea, Journal of Coral Reef Studies (Special Issue): 253-259（2013）
Proc 2nd APCRS
Frequently gleaned holothurians in Camotes Islands, Central Philippines
Serapion N. TANDUYAN1, *, Berenice T. ANDRIANO1, Panfilo E. CIRIACO1, Ricardo B. GONZAGA1, Wilfredo G. ANOOS1, and Lourdes M. GARCIANO1
1 Cebu Technological University- Camotes Campus, 6050 San Francisco, Cebu, Philippines
* Corresponding author: S.N. Tanduyan E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract Camotes Islands is noted of its Camotes Sea as Gleaning one of the fishing grounds in the Philippines. Extraction of the marine resources including holothurians in this fishing ground has been felt by the fishermen; hence, this study was conducted in order to find out its gleaning methods Introduction used, species gleaned, extraction rate and perception on the distribution of holothurians in the four municipalities Holothuroids are the only echinoderms which lie on of Camotes Islands which are San Francisco, Poro, Tudela their sides (Colin and Arnesson, 1995). Sea cucumbers are and Pilar. Interview guide and actual field visits in the fascinating groups of marine animals. They live chiefly areas were used to gather the data. Results show that among corals but are also found among rocks and in gleaning methods of gathering holothurians in Camotes muddy and sandy flats and distributed from the shore to Islands were handpicking, using bolo, water goggles, great depths (James, 2001). They are consumed either pointed wood, iron bars and by spears both in day and fresh or processed. Because of its beautiful color com night operations. Frequently gleaned sea cucumber spe binations, they are caught live and in great demand for cies are Stichopus hermanni, Bohadschia paradoxa, aquaria. Their toxins have antiviral, anti unmoral, anti Bohadschia marmorata, Stichopus horrens, Holothuria cancerous and anti fertility properties and found to be nobilis, Stichopus variegatus and Holothuria pulla which useful in the pharmaceutical industries. At present nearly are also the species that were caught throughout the year. 1,400 species of sea cucumbers are known from the seas The size of the Holothurians gathered measures from in the world. of these, only 15 species are used for pro 5-10 cm and the perceived distribution distance of gleaned cessing at present (James, 2001). holothuria in the site is 1-5 m. The amount of catch is 1/2 The Class Holothuroidea consists of around 1,200 kilo per 1-2 hours gleaning time followed by “no catch” species in total. Of these, the number of species thought to and the third is 0.51 to 1.0 kg and the gleaning frequency be subject to exploitation has risen over the past 10 to 30 of holothurians in the entire Camotes Islands is 2-4 times years Conand 1993. a week. Holothuria species is now declining due to severe extraction or overexploitation (Schoppe, 2000) this was Keywords Holothurians, Camotes Islands, Extraction rate, also based from the personal observation and some in 254 Tanduyan et al.: Gleaned holothurians in Central Philippines terviews of the gleaners in the area. It is on this extent that from China, Hongkong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and the different species of this resource should be assessed Korea, many fishing communities have shifted to large- and monitored so that a management plan on conservation scale exploitation and have caused a rapid decline in is formulated for the continuing span of the species. On stocks. Hence, this study was conducted to find out the the other hand gleaning which is the usual activity of the gleaning practices done by the gleaners, the species gath fisher folks has been found to be contributing tothe ered and the extraction rate of holothurians that may serve depletion of the resource. The method as well as the as basis for whatever management and conservation op frequency of gleaning activity greatly affect the recent tions be made to sustain the availability of the resource as condition of the species of holothurians as well as their well as providing education to the gleaners on the effects habitats. As perceived target species of holothurians w ere of the extraction practices of the resource. heavily exploited because of the great demands from the middlemen whose sell them to buyers in the city. Small Objectives sizes of the resource were also observed and collected 1. To determine the gleaning methods used by the where this is very alarming and needs preferential at gleaners in Camotes Islands. tention by the academe and the government so as to 2. To find out the gleaned species of holothurians in sustain the supply of the resource. Camotes Islands. The Philippines was considered once as the second 3. To determine the extraction rate and the perceived largest producer in the world of dried sea cucumbers with distribution distance of holothurians in Camotes Islands. “boom” around in 1996 (Schoppe, 2000), but catches have fallen to 800 tonnes (dry weight) in 2001 according to FAO. It appears however to be somewhat higher as Materials and methods presented by Gamboa et al. (2005) (cited by Chantal Conand). This is used to be an important source of income Study site for many fishers in some Indo- Pacific countries such as Camotes Island is composed of three islands namely: the Philippines, Indonesia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Pacijan, Poro and Ponson. They are found off the north Tonga, the Maldives and others. For the Philippines, the eastern coast of the island of Cebu and lies 10˚37′ to processing of sea cucumbers into “trepang” was first rec 10º43′10″ north and 124º24′40″ to 124º29′4″ East. The orded in 1911 (Roa, 1987). western most Island of Pacijan is entirely within the Sea cucumber ranks 8th among the major fishery exports political jurisdictions of the municipality of San Francisco of the country (Gamboa, et al.) There are about 100 spe while the eastern most and smallest island of Ponson cies of sea cucumbers in the Philippines but only few are belongs to the municipality of Pilar. The island Poro is commercially valuable. The commonly fished species are split between the municipalities of Poro and Tudela. The found in the families Holothuriidae and Stichopodidae islands belong to the Province of Cebu (pls. see figure 1.) (Schoppe, 2000) and the trade currently exists from the Almost all the parts of the island are occupied with northern to the southern part of the Philippines (Roa, mangroves. The whole island has tidal flats ranging from 1987). 100 meters to 450 meters long and width ranging from For almost a century, the harvesting and processing of 50 m to 1,500 meters. Pacijan Island is dominated by sea cucumbers into trepang has been a source of income grassy and muddy substrates. Poro Island has muddy and for many Philippine families (Schoppe, 2000). It is an rocky substrates and Ponson Island has sandy and muddy additional source of livelihood of many island and coastal substrates. Mostly, all the islands have lots of estuaries communities in the Philippines wherein the processed sea where Pacijan Island has the most of the estuaries and cucumbers are sold at the local markets. As such sea Poro Island has the least. cucumber fishery seems to be quite sustainable. However, with the continuous increasing demand for beche-de-mer Tanduyan et al.: Gleaned holothurians in Central Philippines 255
Fig. 1 Map of Camotes Islands showing the different coastal areas
Table 1 Frequently gleaned holothurians in Camotes Islands species of sea cucumbers and some are used as food of the gleaners. This was based on the catch of the gleaners and also during the interview where pictures of the sea cucumbers are presented to them. The table 2 shows the different instruments used in gathering holothurians species. It was noted that hand picking got the highest frequency (763) in all the coastal areas of the different municipalities followed by the use of bolo or knife (424). Handpicking is commonly used in San Francisco followed by Pilar, Poro and Tudela due to the fact this is the simplest and no other instruments are Methods used where young and old gleaners can use them. Spears This study is a descriptive research using interview are the least used instrument being complicated in its guide & actual field visits in the area in order to gather the operation and usually operated in deeper waters. Water data. There are 1, 246 respondents that are distributed goggles are accessories for gathering sea cucumbers throughout Camotes Islands. The gleaners were identified during high tides and in deeper waters and kerosene lamps and were interviewed at the field and in the landing sites are used in gathering of sea cucumbers during night time. taking into account the species caught ant the amount of As revealed in table 3, 5.1-10 cm are the biggest size of their catch, This also includes the fishing paraphernalia sea cucumber gleaned and the least is 30 cm and above. used. An interview guide was used to gather data on the This means that the sizes of sea cucumber that are avail perceived distance of sea cucumber as well as on their able in our seas are of these sizes. This further means that perception on the species and amount of sea cucumber bigger sea cucumbers are rare since gleaners will always gathered for the last 10 years. prefer bigger sizes if ever they are available. Table 1 presents the 7 frequently gleaned holothurians Table 4 shows the estimated catch collected by the out of 20 species collected and identified throughout gleaners in which 1/2 kilo is common amount of gleaned Camotes Islands. Mostly, they are commercially important cucumbers throughout the islands. This means that the 256 Tanduyan et al.: Gleaned holothurians in Central Philippines
Fig. 2 Frequently Gleaned Holothurian species
Fig. 3 Some of the instruments used by gleaners in gathering holothurians
amounts of sea cucumber in Camotes Islands are becoming are almost depleted in Camotes Islands. lesser and there are so many gleaners that are dependent Frequency of gleaning (table 6) is 2-4 x a week through on the sea for their livelihood out the islands. This means that there is a high fishing Time spent in gleaning holothurians (table 5) is 1.1-2 pressure of holothurians depending on the weather con hours in order to gather 1/2 kilo of sea cucumbers that is ditions. common in the four municipalities. This means that it Perceived distance distribution of gleaned holothurians takes more hours to look for holothurians in order to (Table 7) is 1-5 meters which means that holothurians are gather them. This accounts on the fact that sea cucumbers not densely distributed in Camotes Islands. This accounts Tanduyan et al.: Gleaned holothurians in Central Philippines 257
Table 2 Instruments used in gathering holothurians Table 4 Estimated catch of gleaned holothurians
Table 3 Size of gleaned holothurians
Table 5 Time spent in gleaning holothurians
on the fact that it will take much time for the gleaners to look for available sea cucumbers. The gleaners revealed that for the last 10 to 20 years, the holoturians are usually Stichopus hermanni, Bohadschia paradoxa, Bohadschia caught in groups and very proximate to each other where marmorata, Stichopus horrens, Holothuria nobilis, it will take them only an hour to gather basketful of sea Stichopus variegatus and Holothuria pulla. These are the cucumbers. commercial species of sea cucumbers which are demanded by the buyers. As such they are the target species of the gleaners since these command higher prices. Holothuria Discussion (Microthele) nobilis is mostly utilized as food of the gleaners. Species collected The frequently gleaned sea cucumber species were 258 Tanduyan et al.: Gleaned holothurians in Central Philippines
Table 6 Frequency of gleaning holothurians Amount of Gleaned Holothurians, Time Spent and Frequency in Gleaning and Abundance There is only half of the kilo that are mostly gathered by the holothuria gleaners (Table 4) every time they gleaned for holothuria in 2-4 times a week. This means that holothuria is less distributed in Camotes Islands which support that fact that they are only able to collect holothurians 1/2 kilo in one to two hours gleaning. The availability of targeted species of holothurians becomes very low since the catch per unit effort is 0.5 kg/ 1 to 2 hours gleaning. For the time spent in gleaning this means that gleaning is almost everyday especially that they are unemployed and most especially the cost of living is very high. The number of gleaners is more in Pacijan Island this is because Pacijan is the most populated municipality in Camotes Island followed by Poro, Pilar and Tudela. Pilar is not so populated only those being an isolated island in Camotes Islands mostly the people are unemployed. The unemployment problem aggravated the gleaning fre quency in the entire Camotes Islands most especially that they now become tenants or even they have no more land to be cultivated because most of them sold their lands to buyers which are not from Camotes Islands. The seven species of sea cucumber collected in Camotes Islands were also collected in the waters of Palawan (Schoppe, 2003).This account to the fact that collection of sea cucumbers is not only made in Camotes but throughout the Philippines. Table 7 Perceived distribution distance of gleaned holo The use of lamp in collecting sea cucumber in Camotes thurians Islands was also used in Palawan during low tide by hand (Schoppe, 2003). Mostly women were involved in the collection in the shallow areas. Sea cucumber like in Camotes Islands was also col lected in the Southeastern region of Cuba where their CPUE is 483 kg wet weight kg/ boat/ day which are then separated, classified and packed (Alfonso et al. 2003). Stichopus horrens, hermanni and variegatus collected in Camotes Islands were also collected in Malaysia for medicinal properties. The sea cucumbers are not only the targeted species in the Philippines but also in other parts of the world. This is because their demand is very high due to the benefits one can get from eating the seacu cumbers. Tanduyan et al.: Gleaned holothurians in Central Philippines 259
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