High value sea cucumbers overfished [1]
Thursday, May 5, 2011 - 22:35. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
TONGA'S sea cucumber stocks have been overfished in Tongatapu resulting in a depletion of nearly 50 percent over the past two years - especially of sea cucumber with a high commercial value, the Fisheries Department has revealed.
A sea cucumber stock survey carried out in November 2010 to March 2011 concluded the significant stock depletion, especially on high commercial value cucumber such as teatfish and black teatfish. Meanwhile, low value species, such as lollyfish and snakefish, remained on an average level of healthy stock.
Export data from Tonga also identified the shift from high value species to low value species, showing that targeted species such as snakefish becoming increasingly dominant in Tonga's export to Asian markets.
Quotas
Head of the Research Division of the Ministry of Fisheries, Poasi Ngaluafe said the depletion in the stock was mainly due to the species being overfished, especially in Tongatapu.
He said in response they had issued a lesser quota of 100 tonnes of sea cucumber allocated for commercial purposes for 2011, a decline from 312 tonnes exported in 2010 when 23 export licenses were issued.
Poasi said they would also restrict the number of licenses for exporters this year, but the exact number had not been decided. The applications for licenses closes at the end of May.
The sea cucumber harvesting season, usually runs from April 1 to October 31 annually, but this year's season will start late and finish early. It will run from June 1 to September 30.
"If there will be an extension, it would be for just a month to allow exporters to complete the process of drying their beche de mer," said Poasi, who identified the main depletion of the stock is found in Tongatapu. He said the harvesters at Ha'apai and Vava'u were more conservative.
The Ministry of Fisheries has introduced measures to ensure the continuity of the annual harvesting of sea cucumber, which has been a good source of income for people in island communities.
Ongoing problem
A 10 year ban on the harvesting of sea cucumber in Tonga's water was lifted in 2008 and the over fishing of the sea cucumber stock in Tonga's water has been an on going problem.
The depletion was foreseen last year in parliament when politicians with a vested interest in the industry persuaded government to grant an extension of the season and to issue more sea cucumber export licenses for themselves.
The outcome of that political decision is the depletion of the stock this year.