Expansion of global sea cucumber fisheries buoys exports

Chantal Conand (1, 2)

1 MNHN - Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle
2 ECOMAR - Laboratoire d'Ecologie Marine

The sea cucumber fisheries have expanded during the past two decades, at a faster rate than the management capacity. The exploitation is now qualified as 'serial' and 'contagious'. I present the most recent trends from the last six years of the FAO capture data. Hong Kong remains the most important market for the imports and re-exports of the processed products, mainly the dry " trepang " (or bêche-de-mer), but also other product forms, which raised difficulties for the analysis. The catches still increase. with new countries developing export fisheries, species targeted change and new products are traded.

Keywords: holothurian; trepang; bêche-de-mer; statistics; trade; globalization; management

Domains: Agricultural sciences; Animal biology

Chantal Conand. Expansion of global sea cucumber fisheries buoys exports. Revista de Biología Tropical, 2017, 65 (Suppl.1), pp.1-10. ⟨10.15517/rbt.v65i1%20-%201.31661⟩. ⟨mnhn-01709944⟩