RESEARCH carried out by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR) indicates that the population of highly valued and standard size sea cucumbers have decreased due to over harvesting.
Speaking to local journalists recently, MFMR Principal Fisheries Officer James Ngwaerobo said the decrease indicates the need for a sustainable harvesting and management plan.
He said the research also indicates that the declination of the population of standard size and highly valued sea cucumbers poses a risk to the fisheries sector, an important sector that contributes significantly to the national economy.
‘’This means we need proper management and sustainable harvesting plan for sea cucumbers. Over the years, we have overharvested sea cucumbers and once the country is not careful, the fisheries industry will collapse in the future.
‘’Sea cucumbers can take up five to ten years to develop to its normal harvesting size compare to other marine animal species. This therefore highlights the need for more sustainable management and harvesting of these commodities,” he emphasized.
Mr Ngwaerobo said with the support of the Japanese government, MFMR is working to ensure the recovery and management of sea cucumbers in Solomon Islands.
The overall goal of the project is for the Solomon Islands government to conduct effective resources recovery and management on sea cucumbers. The project started in 2010.
‘’The project has two sites: Marau in Guadalcanal Province and Buena Vista in Central Islands Province. On the both sites, our teams carryout research based on the three phases of the project.
‘’The projects involve preparation, building up the sea cucumber hatchery, biological researching practices, production and release of the sea cucumber juveniles in the project sites, developing sea collectors and place them in the project sites to collect juvenile sea cucumbers and as wells as monitoring them,” Mr Ngwaerobo said.
Mr Ngwaerobo said the successful implementation of the projects will likely see MFMR implement similar projects in other provinces.
He said he believes the projects will highlight their significant impacts on the two implementation site communities and the ministry in basically ensuring good management of sea cucumber resources.
BY JIMMY NOLAN
Solomon Star, Honiara
