Although some fishermen report that sea cucumber fishing took place in the late 1970s, official records indicate that the fishery officially began in the Maldives in 1985.
Initiated in the northern atolls of the Maldives in 1985, this fishery expanded across the entire country within a few years, becoming the highest income-generating fishery after skipjack tuna.
When the sea cucumber fishery began, it primarily targeted high-value species. However, about ten years later, the targeted species shifted, and the harvest of low-value species increased significantly. Consequently, the harvest of a low-value species known as "holhi" increased disproportionately. Since "holhi" is a low-value species, the heavy reliance of fishermen on it indicates the extent to which sea cucumber stocks had depleted during that period.
In the early days of the fishery, sea cucumbers were collected from reef tops and shallow lagoons less than 1 meter deep. It became common to lower a weighted line with a hook attached to catch the sea cucumbers. This was done while wading in the water or free-diving to depths of two to three meters. Reports also indicate that sharpened iron spears were used in the collection process. When high-value species like "alanasi" (prickly redfish) and "falhu batu" became difficult to find in shallow areas, fishermen began using SCUBA gear to dive and collect sea cucumbers from deeper areas between 15 and 25 meters. Although the use of SCUBA gear for harvesting sea cucumbers was officially banned in 1993, the lack of adequate enforcement means that SCUBA diving is still used for this purpose today.
A telephone survey conducted by the Ministry of Fisheries, Marine Resources and Agriculture in 2017 showed that approximately 1,200 fishermen are involved in the sea cucumber fishery. For some, this is their primary source of income, while others participate in it to earn supplementary income. There are many stages involved from the point of harvesting the sea cucumber to its export or retail sale.
Due to the lack of an adequate system to determine the number of sea cucumbers harvested in the Maldives, the true scale of the fishery is not fully understood. However, some fishery data was recorded through a sea cucumber reporting system established in 2002. Under this arrangement, a designated person at the island office of each island recorded the daily sea cucumber catch by fishermen and shared it with the Ministry's information and statistics section at the time. The data received under this reporting arrangement gradually decreased and officially ceased around 2017.
Although the exact volume of the sea cucumber harvest is not fully known, since the harvested species are primarily destined for export, the total number of sea cucumbers collected in the Maldives can be estimated by the total export volume. However, because there is no official system for sea cucumber traders to maintain and report records, the specific types and quantities of exported sea cucumbers remain unknown.
Since species-specific export data was only available for a single year, there have been challenges in making decisions regarding the sea cucumber fishery. Therefore, the Fisheries Ministry has requested that when exporting sea cucumbers, the statistics be categorized by species and shared with the Ministry and Customs.
The export of two species of sea cucumber, "katchala" and "alanasi", which were added to Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)—to which the Maldives is a party—has been banned starting June 1. With the implementation of this measure, the government must also ensure that these two species are not harvested. The Environment Ministry and the MRC are currently undertaking this task.
Under this convention, it must be ensured whether the Maldives is breeding these two species sustainably. If this can be verified, there is an opportunity to remove these two species from the list.
