Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 232531888

Population assesment and status of the endangered commercial sea cucumber in South Sulawesi

Several types of sea cucumbers are in the category of threatened populations, such as Holothuria scabra, Holothuria lessoni, and Thelenota ananas. These three types of sea cucumbers are used for trade, especially for export purposes to several countries in Asia, such as China, Hong Kong, and Singapore. This means that sea cucumber hunting is carried out continuously, causing its population to become endangered in nature. It was reported that total exports for 2017-2020 were 86,376 kg for H. scabra, 93,050 kg for H. lessons, and 156,606 kilograms of T. Ananas (Wirawati et al., 2021). These three species are classified as endangered on the IUCN red list and require data updating. The extent of use of this species is still unknown. Previous investigations have provided only limited information regarding the conditions of the sea cucumber trade in Indonesia. For example, trade data is still collected regionally and is not species-specific (Choo, 2008; Wiadnyana, 2009).

Objectives 

1. Conduct population surveys of sea cucumber Holothuria scabra, Holothuria lessoni and Telenota ananas in several small islands of the Makassar Strait

2. Surveying the location of sea cucumber net cage preparation site on one of the islands in South Sulawesi.

Study Sites 

We conducted this work on seven small islands in the Makassar Strait in two provinces, South Sulawesi and West Sulawesi. At the time of submission of this proposal, the destination location was South Sulawesi. However, we added two small islands in West Sulawesi province to determine the distribution.