Pat’s Wildways: Sea Cucumbers
I have never thought much about sea cucumbers, and I’ll bet most of you readers haven’t either. These sea star and sea urchin relatives live an uninspiring life at the bottom of the sea, where they scavenge on detritus. The sea cucumbers I have encountered underwater in Belize are nondescript slug-like organisms that rarely catch my attention in and around all the other colorful organisms that make up the coral reefs and surrounding sandy substrates.
But now these unassuming animals have come to my attention a few times in my travels in unexpected ways. First off, on my first trip to Paris a couple of years ago, I met a Parisian woman on a park bench in the botanical garden and we hit it off in a conversation. It turns out Chantal Conand is an international widely-cited expert on sea cucumbers with affiliations with the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and amazingly, through my own IUCN work with otters we have a number of friends and colleagues in common. So, since that serendipitous meeting, Chantal and I have been Facebook friends, and whenever I see or hear anything about sea cucumbers, I think of her.
In Belize again, I recently started noticing sea cucumbers. On a snorkel trip with Jason out to Mojo Caye, we noticed a few of these nondescript critters, and Jason dove down to get one for us to examine closely. Interesting yes, but the best part was yet to come. I am friends with Jason and have been out on the water with him a number of times. On this trip with Bucko, I was eager to see “non-tourist” things above and beyond a normal outing. Jason, as always, complied.
So, when he noticed fishermen diving for sea cucumbers, we powered over to see the action. As luck would have it, this was just day two of the opening of the sea cucumber fishery in Belize after a closure of three years due to depletion of the stock following assessments by the Belize Fisheries Department. The most common sea cucumbers in Belize (Holothuria mexicana) are locally called “donkey dung.” I must admit that when Jason told me their name, I heard something else, which you can imagine if you look at the photos.
We watched a group of donkey dung fishermen in action. One man was stationed on a boat, receiving the catch from a number of free divers spread around the area. The divers now and again surfaced with a bag of sea cucumbers, and the boat captain motored over to retrieve them and stash them on board. He beckoned us over and proudly displayed some of the catch. It was a non-tourist sighting for sure!
Belizeans do not consume sea cucumbers, although there are recipes online about how to remove their insides and cut out the muscle under the skin, which, when cooked, is said to resemble calamari. But here in Belize they are largely harvested for export to various Asian countries where they are considered a delicacy and also have medicinal value. In China, dried sea cucumber is used to treat impotence, constipation, joint pain, urinary problems and even fatigue. In 2019 Belize exported 28 tonnes of sea cucumbers before the fishery collapsed. Donkey dung is exported frozen, dried, or brined. One sea cucumber processor in Belize (Fein Catch) describes a whole procedure that involves sorting the eviscerated sea cucumbers into grades, cooking and salting them, soaking them in acetic acid, then drying and smoking them before export. Now, this season, the wholesale price of sea cucumbers is about 25 USD/kilogram – still a good income source when it trickles down to those diving harvesters. In China, sea cucumbers cost many times this amount. And you can even buy dried Mexican sea cucumber on Amazon for $430 for 16 ounces!
I have cheerfully shared my sea cucumber photos and information with Chantal and now she has convinced me to write and illustrate a brief article for the SPC Beche-de-Mer Bulletin. Sure! As Bucko says, “You bring this on yourself.” And so I do. Happily!
Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. [email protected]
