New hatchery for sea cucumber at SEAFDEC

At the price of $180 to 250 per kilogram (Php 12,000 per kg) of dried sea cucumber in the United States, sea cucumber are good bets for fish farmers wanting to find the new gold in aquaculture. This has driven South East Asian Fisheries Development Centre (SEAFDEC) Aquaculture Department, the research centre based in Iloilo, to develop the hatchery, nursery and grow-out technologies of the sea cucumber Holothuria scabra so that overexploitation of the wild fisheries on which the sea cucumber trade depends will cease or be minimized. Aquaculture can take the pressure off wild stock, enabling it to recover and allowing sustainable management plans to be put in place by local government units and people’s organizations in sea cucumber-rich areas.