Group Coordinator and Bulletin Editor
Production
Pacific Community, Fisheries Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems Division, Information Section, SPC, BP D5, 98848 Noumea Cedex, New Caledonia.
Produced with financial assistance from the Australian Government, the European Union, France and the New Zealand Aid Programme.
Editorial
This 38th issue of the SPC Beche-de-mer Information Bulletin includes eighteen original articles. The first two relate to the Pacific Islands region. Hair et al. highlight a case study of the sea cucumber fishery of the Tigak Islands (New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea), which was carried out after the lifting of a seven-and-a-half year nationwide moratorium on sea cucumber fishing and the beche-de-mer trade. Lee makes observations about the length-weight relationship, movement rates and spawning of Holothuria scabra in Fiji.
Information is also reported from the Indo-Pacific region with Mulochau presenting first his study on the trading of sea cucumbers from Geyser Bank (Scattered Islands, Gloriosos, Indian Ocean). In the following article, the same author describes the monitoring of commercially important sea cucumber populations in the reefs of Mayotte (Indian Ocean). The two next articles show different in situ observations: Setyastuti et al. have discovered a Holothuria leucospilota natural nursery on Pai Island, Biak-Papua (Indonesia) and Bourjon and Desvignes describe asexual reproduction in a population of Holothuria difficilis (Echinodermata; Holothuroidea) at Reunion Island.
Four articles relate to experiments made in situ, in laboratories or in hatcheries. Ahmed et al. made a pilot study on grow-out culture of H. scabra in bottom-set sea cages in lagoons of Maniyafushi Island (Kaafu Atoll, Maldives). González-Wangüemert and Domínguez-Godino assessed rehydration protocols on the dried sea cucumber Holothuria arguinensis (Portugal). Belbachir and Mezali studied the food preferences of four aspidochirotid holothurians species (Holothuroidea: Echinodermata) that inhabit the Posidonia oceanica meadow of the Mostaganem area (Algeria). Todinanahary et al. investigated the influence of phytoplankton densities on the time of appearance of doliolaria and pentactula in sandfish hatcheries (Madagascar).
There are then two articles that are about bibliographic and statistical analyses, which deal with the sea cucumber market and the illegal fisheries. To et al. update news about the Hong Kong market and Conand gives new information on worldwide illegal fisheries for sea cucumbers.
Diseases and parasites are the subjects of the two next articles. Burel shows strange blisters found on Holothuria scabra integument that occurred under fresh water influence (Madagascar) and Rogers et al. report on the pearlfish Carapus bermudensis from the sea cucumber Holothuria mexicana in Belize (Central America).
Various short reports and communications end this issue such as the new data on the distribution of the sea cucumber Molpadia musculus in Russian seas, given by Stepanov and Panina. Quratulan et al. determine the effects of seasonal variation on the sea cucumber Ohshimella ehrenbergii weight–length relationships in Pakistan. Bermudes talks about the initiative led by the Pacific Community’s Fisheries, Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems Division: participants from five Pacific Island countries took part in activities in Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Caledonia to improve their knowledge of sandfish (H. scabra) aquaculture during October and November 2017. Léopold and Govinden detail the project SEACUSEY that focuses on the management of the sea cucumber fishery in the Seychelles. A couple of pages are dedicated to observations of sea cucumbers spawning into the wild, made by Byrne and Wolfe in Australia, and Champagnat and Moisson in the Mediterranean Sea.
We then propose information and communications, listing the workshops and conferences that were held in 2017 and those that will take place in 2018, a call for collaboration is relayed by Friedman and a list of publications related to holothurians that were published in 2017 is compiled by Conand.
Finally, congratulations are expressed to Nathalie Marquet who completed her PhD that is titled ‘Study of the reproductive biology and chemical communication of sea cucumbers (Holothuria arguinensis and H. mammata)’.
Contents
Hair C., Kinch J., Galiurea T., Kanawi P., Mwapweya M., Noiney J. (pdf: 583 KB)
Lee S., Ford A., Mangubhai S., Wild C., Ferse S. (pdf: 242 KB)
Mulochau T. (pdf: 435 KB)
Mulochau T. (pdf: 653 KB)
Setyastuti A., Dharmawan I.W.E., Hafiz M., Vimono I.B., Aji L.P. (pdf: 379 KB)
Bourjon P., Desvignes T. (pdf: 312 KB)
Ahmed H., Shakeel H., Naeem S., Sano K. (pdf: 278 KB)
González-Wangüemert M., Domínguez-Godinoa J.A. (pdf: 480 KB)
Belbachir Nor-E., Mezali K. (pdf: 225 KB)
Todinanahary G.G.B., Fohy N., Andriatsialonana C., Eeckhaut I. (pdf: 206 KB)
To A.W.L., Shea S.K.H., Conand C. (pdf: 393 KB)
Burel B. (pdf: 208 KB)
Rogers A., Hamel J.-F., Mercier A. (pdf: 292 KB)
Stepanov V.G., Panina E.G. (pdf: 241 KB)
Quratulan A., Qadeer M.A., Sabri B. (pdf: 236 KB)
Léopold M., Govinden R. (pdf: 295 KB)