Fisheries Enhancement Fund Supports Sea Cucumber Farming

Sea cucumbers play an important role in the marine ecosystem by acting as natural ocean cleaners because sea cucumbers will eat lots of sand.  While they are ingesting sand, the natural digestive processes in their guts will defecate the negative effects of ocean acidification.

On the other hand, sea cucumbers are often overfished because of their high nutritional and economic value, putting them at risk of extinction. With funding support from Airport Authority Hong Kong’s (AAHK) Fisheries Enhancement Fund (FEF), a team at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has developed a farming system for Holothuria scabra, one of the threatened species of sea cucumbers in Hong Kong, and has been training local fishermen to apply the aquaculture methods in sea cucumber farming.

The funding provided by FEF has enabled the project team to recruit two experts from Chile and Mexico with rich experience in farming invertebrate animals for developing protocols of the research.

The team established an indoor aquaculture system in Shek O and purchased juvenile sea cucumbers from Southeast Asia for the research. An array of experiments were conducted including DNA analysis, temperature-controlled and water quality-controlled experiments to find out the optimum conditions of sea cucumber aquaculture in indoor areas. Preliminary results indicate that indoor aquaculture system offers the controllable condition for sea cucumber aquaculture, especially in winter.

As indoor farming in Hong Kong can be costly, the team has also studied the feasibility of outdoor sea cucumber farming in fish farms on Lamma Island. The study results showed that with careful control on water quality, sediment and ocean currents, outdoor farming of sea cucumber is also feasible. Waters with sandy or muddy substrates and environment without potential predators are favourable to the growth of sea cucumbers.

With the findings, the project team developed a user-friendly method for fishermen in the form of a spreadsheet.  With input of basic information, the value of optimum stocking density and other key farming data can be automatically generated by the spreadsheet for fishermen to optimise their sea cucumber farming practice.  Around 100 local fishermen were trained during the project period.

Additionally, the team has been helping local fishermen to explore market opportunities by putting them in contact with dried seafood companies, which have shown great interest in locally-farmed sea cucumbers which cost less than imported or caught products. “This project helps create a new market, and that means extra income opportunities for local fishermen”, says Dr. Juan Diego Gaitan-Espitia, Project Leader and Assistant Professor of School of Biological Sciences and SWIRE Institute of Marine Sciences of HKU.

Peter Lee, General Manager, Sustainability of AAHK said, “Our FEF promotes sustainable development of fishing industry in Hong Kong.  We are glad that this project helps local fishermen tap into the sustainable farming of a high value fisheries product.  It demonstrates how the fund works to facilitate the transfer of sustainable fisheries skills and promotion of new aquaculture methods which benefit the local fishing industry.”

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