Secretariat of the Pacific Community ISSN 1025-4943 Issue 31 – January 2011 BECHE-DE-MER information bulletin Inside this issue Editorial Sandfish culture in Fiji Islands New information about sea cucumber biodiversity, ecology and aquacul- C. Hair et al. p. 3 ture is featured in this issue. Reports on research and projects come from Severely overfished sea cucumbers in various countries, including Fiji, Iran, Oman, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville Philippines and Indonesia. We also present some insights about Mediter- R. Hamilton and P. Lokani p. 12 ranean sea cucumber phylogeny, and a summary of all known saponins. An assessment of Holothuria scabra growth in marine micro-farms in The first paper is by Cathy Hair et al. (p. 3), who present results from an southwestern Madagascar ACIAR-funded sandfish culture and sea ranching mini-project in Fiji. The G. Tsiresy et al. p. 17 main aims of the project were to transfer sandfish hatchery technology Simultaneous mass spawning of to local government and private hatcheries, increase juvenile production, Holothuria scabra in sea ranching sites and conduct sea ranching trials with a local coastal community. in Bolinao and Anda municipalities, Philippines R. D. D. Olavides et al. p. 23 Hamilton and Lokani (p. 12) studied sea cucumber populations in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. They compared results of surveys Shallow-water sea cucumber inventory made in the same areas in 1992 and 2008, which show that the abun- in the Sultanate of Oman M.R. Claereboudt and K.M. Al-Rashdi p. 25 dance of eight species of sea cucumbers dramatically declined over this 16-year period. First observation of a large group of Holothuria leucospilota sea cucumber Tsiresy et al. (p. 17) present their results about the growth of Holothuria juveniles at a nursery in Manado (north Sulawesi, Indonesia) scabra in micro-farms in Madagascar. The authors found that the growth C. Taquet et al. p. 30 and survival rates are different in three surveyed villages, and discuss the reasons for these differences. Breeding and larval rearing of the sea cucumber Holothuria leucospilota Brandt (Holothuria vegabunda Selenka) from the Olavides et al. also (p. 23) worked on Holothuria scabra but in Bolinao and northern Persian Gulf, Iran Anda in the Philippines. The authors inform us about simultaneous mass A.-R. Dabbagh et al. p. 35 spawning in sea ranching sites. Abundance, distribution and some biological aspects of Holothuria edulis Claereboudt and Al-Rashdi (p. 25) evaluated for the first time, the diver- off the northwest coast of Sri Lanka sity and abundance of holothuroids along the coast of Oman. One of the D.C.T. Dissanayake and S. Athukorala p. 39 most striking results is the large difference in sea cucumber community structure between the Sea of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Taquet et al. (p. 30) and Dabbagh et al. (p. 35) worked on Holothuria leucos- Editor Igor Eeckhaut pilota. Taquet et al. report here about their observations of a large group of Marine Biology H. leucospilota juveniles in Manado (north Sulawesi, Indonesia). Dabbagh 6, Av. Champ de Mars University of Mons-Hainaut et al. describe how they successfully induced spawning of H. leucospilota 7000 Mons Belgium individuals in Iran. The authors obtained juveniles after a month of rear- Email: [email protected] ing and the survival rate was close to 5%. Production Information Section, Marine Resources Division The abundance, distribution and some biological aspects of Holothuria SPC, BP D5, 98848 Noumea Cedex New Caledonia. edulis on the northwest coast of Sri Lanka is the subject of a paper by Dis- Fax: +687 263818 sanayake and Athukorala (p. 39). The findings of this study could be used Email: [email protected] www.spc.int/coastfish to develop proper management plans for the sustainable exploitation of Produced with financial assistance this resource in the future. from Australia, France and New Zealand 2 SPC Beche-de-mer Information Bulletin #31 – January 2011 Mezali (p. 45) gives some insights on the phylogeny of Algerian shal- Some insights on the phylogeny low-water sea cucumber species. The most striking result is certainly of Algerian shallow-water sea the fact that Holothuria tubulosa, the most common species and the cucumber species (Holothuroidea: “best known” species in the Mediterranean Sea, forms a clade with Aspidochirotida) two well-separated populations. K. Mezali p. 45 Review of saponin diversity in sea Finally, Caulier et al. (p. 48) reviewed saponin diversity in Holothurii- cucumbers belonging to the family dae. No less than 59 triterpene glycosides are reported in the literature. Holothuriidae G. Caulier et al. p. 48 We also present at the end of this issue several interesting communi- Juveniles and natural spawning cations, including a report by Cathy Hair et al. on the use of an algal observations p. 55 concentrate as potential substitute for the food usually used for the sandfish culture (p. 60) and a report by Sharon Ng on a recent work- Communications p. 60 shop on the “Feasibility of sea cucumber and abalone farming as an Abstracts and new publications p. 67 alternative livelihood in Semporna, Sabah”. As usual, we conclude the issue with some information concerning sea cucumber spawning observations, and a list of abstracts from re- cent sea cucumber-related publications. Igor Eeckhaut © Copyright Secretariat of the Pacifi c Community, 2011 All rights for commercial / for profi t reproduction or translation, in any form, reserved. SPC authorises the partial reproduction or translation of this material for scientifi c, educational or research purposes, provided that SPC and the source document are properly acknowledged. Permission to reproduce the document and/or translate in whole, in any form, whether for commercial / for profi t or non-profi t purposes, must be requested in writing. Original SPC artwork may not be altered or separately published without permission. The views expressed in this Bulletin are those of the authors and are not necessarily shared by the Secretariat of the Pacifi c Community. Original text: English Secretariat of the Pacifi c Community, Marine Resources Division, Information Section BP D5, 98848 Noumea Cedex, New Caledonia Telephone: +687 262000; Fax: +687 263818; [email protected]; http://www.spc.int/coastfi sh SPC Beche-de-mer Information Bulletin #31 – January 2011 3 Sandfish culture in Fiji Islands Cathy Hair,1 Tim Pickering,2 Semisi Meo,3 Tavenisa Vereivalu,4 Justin Hunter,5 Laisiasa Cavakiqali6 Introduction Recent efforts in the Pacific region involve investi- gating the potential for sea ranching in Fiji, using Reports of decreasing stocks of valuable tropi- locally managed fishing areas or qoliqoli. Sandfish cal sea cucumbers worldwide are all too famil- are called dairo in Fiji and are a traditional food iar. Throughout the Pacific, as elsewhere, the item (Fig. 1). This is in contrast to most PICTs, well-known story describes dwindling numbers, which export sea cucumbers but do not consume smaller individuals and increasing reliance on them. The exception is parts of Polynesia where the exploiting low value species. Management has internal organs may be eaten and the animal left to essentially failed for a host of reasons, with some regenerate (Kinch et al. 2008). Although sandfish is Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) protected by fisheries legislation for domestic con- resorting to the extreme measure of fishing mor- sumption in Fiji, there has been widespread export, atoria to encourage stock recovery (Kinch et al. particularly since the late 1980s. Concerns about 2008; Nash and Ramofafia 2006; Purcell 2010). decreases in sandfish abundance and size have led to initiatives to promote sea ranching as an income Sandfish (Holothuria scabra) is a high value tropical generating resource and also to help rejuvenate sea cucumber species and is regarded as vulner- wild stocks. We use the term “sea ranching” for a able to overfishing because of its inshore, mostly “put, grow and take” operation where Fijian own- shallow, habitat. Hatchery technology for this ers can harvest hatchery-produced sandfish grown species has been established in a number of coun- out in their qoliqoli (Bell et al. 2008a). Fortunately, tries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Solomon there are some locations where sandfish are still Islands, New Caledonia, Vietnam and the Philip- locally abundant, although large mature animals pines, through research supported by the Austral- are not easy to find. ian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the WorldFish Center. The spawning This article describes the results of an ACIAR- and larval rearing of sandfish up to small juvenile funded sandfish culture and sea ranching mini- size (>3 g) is now regarded as relatively straight- project (see boxed text). The study ran for two years forward. Commercial profits from har- vestable adults are, however, far from certain. Hatchery production is a costly intervention. Furthermore, large areas are needed for increasing juvenile produc- tion, and grow-out in ponds or the sea is necessary for producing commercial size individuals. ACIAR research on grow- out is also underway. Pond grow-out of juvenile sandfish to market size is being developed in Vietnam (Pitt and Duy 2004; Bell et al. 2007) and sea ranching trials are being conducted in the Philippines. Far- ther afield, sea-pen farming in Madagas- car is showing promise (Eeckhaut et al. 2008; Robinson and Pascal 2009), and a private sector and state government col- laboration is planning sea ranching trials in the Northern Territory of Australia. Figure 1. Sandfish (dairo) prepared the Fijian way. 1. James Cook University, Townsville, Australia. Email: [email protected] 2. Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Suva, Fiji Islands. Email: [email protected] 3. Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area Network, Suva, Fiji Islands 4.