Sustainable Sea Cucumber

Here’s an article you won’t see every day about sustainable sea cucumbers.

Although, I’ve never seen sea cucumber on the menu in the United States, it is quite the delicacy in certain parts of the word. In fact, the sea cucumbers off the coast of Madagascar have been overfished and are on the endangered species list.

Sea cucumbers are not just a food for humans, they also provide a valuable service to the ocean. They help clean the ocean environment and are an important part of the ocean food web.

Aqua-Spark, an investment fund for sustainable aquaculture has announced that they have receive funding to begin  in-vitro fertilization of Sea Cucumbers. In-vitro, of course, means in test tube. So aqua Spark will be attempting to make sustainable sea cucumbers.

Anyway we wish them good luck. It will be interesting to see in a few years if the Holothuria scabra sea cucumber species remains on the endangered species list.

The full article is below.

 

Sustainable Sea Cucumber Farming Operation Receives $2.75 million Investment

MADAGASCAR – Aqua-Spark, the first investment fund focused exclusively on sustainable aquaculture, has announced a new investment into a sea cucumber farming operation, Indian Ocean Trepang.

The Madagascar-based company is the exclusive global licensee for an innovative patent on in-vitro fertilization of the Holothuria scabra sea cucumber species.

Sea cucumbers are in high demand in Asian markets, where they’re considered a delicacy. They are also deposit-feeders that clean the environment without requiring feed, and can even be used in land-based marine farms to mitigate effluent.

For Aqua-Spark, which has invested in select land-based fish farms like Sogn Aqua and Matorka,this application and potential to scale is of particular interest.

Native to Madagascar, the Holothuria scabra sea cucumber species has fallen victim to overfishing and has been listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation and is on its Red List. Read more here…

Sustainable sea cucumbers has been the topic of this post.