Beche-de-mer No 45 (April 2025)

It is a pleasure for me to introduce this 45th issue of the SPC Beche-de-mer Information Bulletin because it is particularly dedicated to a person who is dear to us, Chantal Conand. Chantal has had an extremely prolific professional life, and we wanted to pay tribute to her by trying to summarise her extraordinary scientific production that she has had, and still has today.

Several contributions in this issue come from the Pacific Ocean. The first comes from Leeworthy who describes the distribution and abundance of burrowing blackfish Actinopyga spinea on Gould Reef (Great Barrier Reef, Queensland), and compares his data to previous findings. The second article, by Byrne et al., shares observations of juvenile Holothuria scabra at Low Isles on the northern Great Barrier Reef. Argyle et al. give information about Chelonia mydas feeding on Holothuria atra in the shallow lagoon at Aroa, Rarotonga, Cook Islands. Tanita et al. inform us about Bohadschia argus spawning in the Central Province of Solomon Islands.

It is uncommon to have articles reporting on Chinese practices regarding sea cucumber aquaculture. Cong et al. inform us about a newly emerging farming practice in China integrating sea cucumber cultivation and photovoltaics.

In a previous issue, we learned that the sea cucumber Cucumaria frondosa was explored by some communities in northern Canada as a possible fishery. This issue of the bulletin includes three articles relating to the biology of this species in this location, which has rather extreme environmental conditions. Morrisson et al. used video surveys obtained with a remotely operated vehicle at the Belcher Islands, Hudson Bay, Nunavut to assess the distributional patterns of C. frondosa. Pierrat et al. describe an unconventional association between a marine halacarid mite (Arthropoda) and the early juveniles of this species in Nunavut. Ma et al. talk about unexpected biotic substrata utilised by newly settled recruits of that sea cucumber in their nursery habitat. Before leaving the Far North, Morrow et al. explores the historical development, regulation, and nature of wildlife crime and illegal fishing in Canadian sea cucumber fisheries.

Four articles come to us from the Indian Ocean. Keesing and Bessey report  on the possible local extinction of Holothuria lessoni at Ashmore Reef, northwestern Australia. Jayasekara and Dissanayake review the development of sandfish aquaculture in Sri Lanka. Eeckhaut et al. let students speak on the theoretical and practical courses they followed during their training in Madagascar on aquaculture and farming of Holothuria scabra (International Certificate in Artisanal Mariculture and Village Farming). Vaitilingon et al. detail the development of the first pilot-scale sandfish hatchery production in Mauritius. 

Finally, the last three articles offered to us come from the Mediterranean. Lebouazda and Mezali (p. 109) characterise the body wall of Holothuria sanctori sampled in Algeria. Guetat and F. Sellem (p. 115) give us some complementary observations about Holothuria poli and Cucumaria syracusana living in Boughrara Lagoon. And finally, Zerroual and Mezali (p. 117) examine the reproductive capacity of Holothuria poli and Holothuria tubulosa sampled in the west coast of this country. 

This issue ends with various information, the first being on the role of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Sea Cucumber Specialist Group by Mercier. Zang and Eeckhaut present a new Chinese-Belgian joint laboratory – Interaction and Aquaculture of Marine Economic Organisms – to learn about sea cucumber biology. 

Igor Eeckhaut