ISSN 1025-4943 Secretariat of the Pacific Community BECHE-DE-MER Number 22 — July 2005 INFORMATION BULLETIN Editor and group coordinator: Chantal Conand, Université de La Réunion, Laboratoire de biologie marine, 97715 Saint-Denis Cedex, La Réunion, France. [Fax: +262 938166; Email: [email protected]]. Production: Information Section, Marine Resources Division, SPC, BP D5, 98848 Noumea Cedex, New Caledonia. [Fax: +687 263818; Email: [email protected]; Website: http://www.spc.int/coastfish]. Produced with financial assistance from the European Union. Editorial It is a great pleasure to present the 22nd issue of the SPC Beche-de-mer Inside this issue Information Bulletin, which is particularly rich and diverse. The use of calcareous spicules for I draw your attention to the new database of all articles and ab- the identification of the Galápagos stracts published in the Bulletin to date. This was recently put to- sea cucumber Isostichopus fuscus on gether by SPC’s Fisheries Information Section, and is available on the international market SPC’s website at: http://www.spc.int/coastfish/news/search_ M.V.Toral-Granda p. 3 bdm.asp. The database includes close to 560 article and abstract Appearance and development of titles that can be searched by title, author’s name(s), scientific skeletal structures in Holothuria name, region or country. Each search result is presented with a scabra larvae and epibiont juveniles hyperlink that allows downloading in pdf format. Your com- R. Rasolofonirina and M. Jangoux p. 6 ments and suggestions on how to improve this useful tool are most welcome. Fission inducement in Indonesian holothurians This issue of the Bulletin includes articles focusing on many dif- P. Purwati and S.A.P. Dwiono p. 11 ferent areas; in some cases, this is the first time research from these locales has appeared in the Bulletin (e.g. the Comoros, fea- Sea cucumbers of the Comoros tured in the article by Samyn et al., p. 14; Mauritius, addressed by Archipelago Laxminarayana, p. 48; and Sri Lanka, addressed by Terney, p. 24). Y. Samyn et al. p. 14 These articles highlight the current interest in sea cucumbers in the western Indian Ocean. Contributions about Madagascar by Sea cucumber inventory in Mayotte, Rasolofonirina and Jangoux (p. 6) and Mayotte by Conand et al. southwest Indian Ocean (p. 19) also serve to illustrate the progress in sea cucumber re- C. Conand et al. p. 19 search in this region. Observation of asexual Identification of sea cucumber species is difficult. With CITES’ reproduction by natural fission of conservation concerns, the issue of identifying processed speci- Stichopus horrens Selenka in Okinawa mens has become critical. One identification method involves Island, Japan special preparation of the body wall to examine the calcareous H. Kohtsuka et al. p. 23 spicules. This method has been used in the Galapagos for Present status of the sea cucumber Isostichopus fuscus (see article by Toral on p. 3). fishery in southern Sri Lanka: Purcell presents advances from the important WorldFish Center, A resource depleted industry which is developing technologies for sandfish restocking (see ar- P.B.Terney Pradeep Kumara et al. p. 24 ticle on p. 30). MARINE RESOURCES DIVISION – INFORMATION SECTION 2 SPC Beche-de-mer Information Bulletin #22 – July 2005 We continue to publish articles on asexual reproduction by fis- Developing technologies for siparity. Purwati presents her recent findings with Holothuria restocking sandfish: atra and H. leucospilota (p. 11) and Kohtsuka et al. write about Update on the WorldFish–SPC their observation of a Stichopus horrens specimen undergoing project in New Caledonia fission (p. 23). S. Purcell p. 30 For this issue, we have not received answers to the different ques- An external check for disease and tionnaires presented in previous issues of the Bulletin, but we hope health of hatchery-produced sea to receive your contributions for the next issue on the following cucumbers important fishery-related subjects: overexploitation, sexual repro- S. Purcell and I. Eeckhaut p. 34 duction, recruitment and juvenile observations in the wild. An incidence of parasitic infestation Proceedings of the 11th International Echinoderm Conference are in Holothuria atra Jaeger now published as: Proceedings of the 11th International M.K. Ram Mohan and D.B. James p. 38 Echinoderm Conference, Munich, Germany, October 6–10, 2003: The recent status of sea cucumber Heinzeller, T. and Nebelsick, J.H. (eds), Taylor and Francis fisheries in the continental United Group, London, 633 p. You can order this publication through States of America Taylor and Francis website (http://www.tandf.co.uk/books/, A.W. Bruckner p. 39 click on “Catalogue” in the menu on the left side and enter Echinoderms Munchen in the search box). Several abstracts of Management of Queensland sea cu- published papers are included in the Abstracts and New cumber stocks by rotational zoning Publications section on p. 55 of this Bulletin. R. Lowden p. 47 The location of the 2006 International Echinoderm Conference Induced spawning and larval rearing has not yet been decided. We hope to be able to give this infor- of the sea cucumbers, Bohadschia mation in the next issue of the Bulletin. marmorata and Holothuria atra in Mauritius All previous issues of the Bulletin are available from SPC’s web- A. Laxminarayana p. 48 site at: http://www.spc.int/coastfish/News/BDM/bdm.htm (English and French versions). Correspondence p. 53 Abstracts and publications p. 55 The latest issue of the “Echinoderm Newsletter” is available at: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/iz/echinoderm. And, as usual, you can access the Echinoderm Portal from: http://www.nrm.se/ev/ echinoderms/echinoportal.html.en Produced with financial assistance Chantal Conand from the European Union, through the EU/SPC PROCFish project. The views expressed in this Bulletin are those of the authors and are not necessarily shared by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community or the European Union. SPC PIMRIS is a joint project of five international or- the availability of information on marine resources ganisations concerned with fisheries and marine to users in the region, so as to support their ratio- resource development in the Pacific Islands region. nal development and management. PIMRIS activi- The project is executed by the Secretariat of the ties include: the active collection, cataloguing and Pacific Community (SPC), the South Pacific Forum archiving of technical documents, especially ephe- Fisheries Agency (FFA), the University of the mera (“grey literature”); evaluation, repackaging South Pacific (USP), the South Pacific Applied and dissemination of information; provision of lit- Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), and the Pacific erature searches, question-and-answer services Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). This and bibliographic support; and assistance with the bulletin is produced by SPC as part of its commit- Pacific Islands Marine Resources development of in-country reference collections ment to PIMRIS. The aim of PIMRIS is to improve Information System and databases on marine resources. SPC Beche-de-mer Information Bulletin #22 – July 2005 3 newnew infoinfo beche-de-mer The use of calcareous spicules for the identification of the Galápagos sea cucumber Isostichopus fuscus on the international market M.Verónica Toral-Granda1 Introduction nized as an important food item in the Chinese market (J. Chen, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research About 40 species of commercial sea cucumbers are Institute, China, pers. comm). harvested throughout the world’s oceans (Conand 2004). Once on the international market, the dried In the field, this species can easily be recognized by (processed) form of some species can be almost im- its thick, firm brownish body wall covered with possible to distinguish from others (Conand 2004). blunt yellow papillae (Fig. 2) (Hickman 1998). Sea cucumber taxonomy is based on anatomical However, once processed, it looks similar to some features, such as the shapes and combination of mi- other species of the family, including S. horrens, croscopic spicules that are the skeletal components which is harvested illegally together with I. fuscus in the body wall of all sea cucumbers. These (Arellano 2004). The spicules in the body wall of spicules can take widely different shapes, such as I. fuscus take the form of tables and C-shaped rods rosettes, C-shaped rods, buttons, and plates (Fig. 1) while the tube feet produce spicules shaped like end- (Hickman 1998). The sea cucumber Isosti- chopus fuscus (Ludwig, crown 1875) has been har- cross-bridge spire crown vested commercially in pillar the Galápagos Islands disc since 1991, where it has disc become the most impor- side view top view pseudo-table tant fishery resource tables (Murillo et al. 2004); it is commercially depleted in mainland Ecuador (Camhi 1995). Illegal fishing activities have been continuous in the smooth nodose ellipsoid Galápagos (Piu 1998, buttons grains rosettes 2000; Martínez 1999; Sant 2004), fuelled mainly by international demand for this species and the economic needs of the local fishing sec- tor. Although it is not anchor C-shaped plate rods wheel among the most valu- spiracle able sea cucumber species (Conand 2004), Figure 1. Different types of calcareous ossicles present in holothurians. the Galápagos sea cu- Source: Conand 1998 cumber has been recog- 1. Department of Marine Research and Conservation, Charles Darwin Research Station, Galápagos Islands. Email: [email protected] 4 SPC Beche-de-mer Information Bulletin #22 – July 2005 Methodology Thirty I. fuscus specimens (10 fresh, 10 in brine and 10 dried) were obtained from the Galápagos National Park Service; all had been impounded by the Park Service. A slice 1 cm2 x 1 mm thickness was dissected from the dorsal epidermis of each in- dividual. Following the methodology described by Hickman (1998), each sample was placed in a small test tube with 3 ml of commercial bleach (NaOCl). Samples were left for approximately 30 min or until the body wall had dissolved and the ossicles settled to the bottom, resembling fine white sedi- Figure 2.