GreenFish Sea Cucumber

The sea cucumber (Huifi Lan’daa in Dhivehi) fishery in the Maldives is documented to have commenced in 1985 (Joseph 1992; Ahmed et al. 1997), although some fishers report that it started in the late 1970s. Initially, sea cucumbers were mainly harvested from the northern atolls, but by 1987, the fishery had expanded across the Maldives. Within a few years, the sea cucumber fishery was the most highly valued fishery outside the tuna fishing season (Joseph 1992). In the 1980s, catch was comprised mainly of high values species, but by 1990, catch composition had changed and became dominated by the low-valued Holothuria atra (Lollyfish). The degree of dependence on this species reflects the poor state of the sea cucumber fishery, because fishermen previously did not harvest this species as long as higher-valued species were available (Ahmed et al. 1997).