211 Population status, fisheries and trade of sea cucumbers in Latin America and the Caribbean Verónica Toral-Granda Galapagos Islands: a hotspot of sea cucumber fisheries in Latin America and the Caribbean Verónica Toral-Granda 213 Population status, fisheries and trade of sea cucumbers in Latin America and the Caribbean Verónica Toral-Granda FAO Consultant Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador E-mail:
[email protected] Toral-Granda,V. 2008. Population status, fisheries and trade of sea cucumbers in Latin America and the Caribbean. In V. Toral-Granda, A. Lovatelli and M. Vasconcellos (eds). Sea cucumbers. A global review of fisheries and trade. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper. No. 516. Rome, FAO. 2008. pp. 213–229. SUMMARY The region under study comprises a total of 25 countries where, although there are some sea cucumber fisheries, scant information exists about them. There are eleven species of sea cucumbers currently harvested for commercial use in the region, with legal and illegal fisheries currently occurring in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela and Chile. In most of the countries where a fishery exists, there is hardly any biological or ecological information as well as little knowledge on the population status and even, in some cases, the taxonomy of the species under commercial exploitation. In most countries with ongoing fisheries, no management measures are in place and new species are normally being incorporated to the fishing activities. Although sea cucumber fishing it is not a traditional activity, some households have become highly dependent on this fishery, with increasing pressure towards decision makers to allow such activity.