Holothuria edulis
Source:IUCNTaxonomy
Assessment Information
- IUCN Red List Category and Criteria
- Least Concern ver 3.1
- Assessment language
- English
- Year published
- 2013
- Date assessed
- 2010-05-18 00:00:00 UTC
This species is widespread in the Indo-Pacific, and can be common in some parts of its range. It occurs in shallow waters. It is widely fished, but has low commercial value and there is no current indication of widespread population decline. It is listed as Least Concern.
Geographic Range
This species is distributed from East Africa, and Southeast Arabia, widespread throughout the Indo-West pacific, from North Australia to Japan and south Pacific Islands, and in the East Indies.
Population
Kalaeb et al. (2008) used transect data to calculate a population density of 48.5 individuals of this species per hectare in near shore waters of Eritrea, east Africa.
During surveys, Purcell et al. (2009) found this species at 28% of sites, and it was found more frequently in reef passes and in deeper lagoon areas and places on the reef slope with sand or rubble. It was rarely very abundant but moderate abundances above 1,000 ind*km-2 were estimated at 6 sites.
In Seychelles, it has a density of 0.35 ind*ha-1 (Aumeeruddy and Conand, 2008).
Habitat and Ecology
In the Western Central Pacific, this species lives in inner reef flats or fringing and lagoon-islet reefs, and shallow coastal lagoons between 0 and 30 m (Kinch et al. 2008). In the Asia region, it feeds actively during the day and rests at irregular intervals (Choo 2008). In Africa and the Indian Ocean region, this species lives in seagrass and lagoons over sandy substrate between 0 and 30 m. In Madagascar, it inhabits the inner slope, the seagrass meadows and the microatoll, with highest density (0.612 kg*ha-1) in the inner slope (Conand 2008).
In the Great Barrier Reef, this species reproduces between December and January (Kinch et al. 2008).
No information is known on changes of habitat requirements during the life history of the species, but generally, the juveniles of aspidochirotids are cryptic and small individuals that may migrate into adult habitat later (Purcell 2004).| Habitats | Suitability | Major importance |
|---|---|---|
Threats
In the Western Central Pacific, this species is harvested in Palau, Guam, CNMI, FSM, Kiribati, Tonga, PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji and Torres Strait (Australia). In Fiji and Solomon Islands it is considered to have a low commercial value (Kinch et al. 2008). In Asia, this species is of commercial importance in China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Viet Nam. In Thailand, all sea cucumbers were harvested for local consumption, where this species was collected commercially in Rayong and Chon Buri in eastern Thailand. In Indonesia, it is heavily exploited (Choo 2008). In Sri Lanka, this species was one of the two main species in trade where fishermen got a very low price due to the high abundance, the price increased up as supplies dwindled (Conand 2008). It is of low commercial importance in Kenya and Madagascar (Muthiga et al. 2007), China (Chen 2004). It is also fished in Eritea and is fished when found in the Philippines.
This species is used for aquaria (Toral-Granda 2007).
Many sea cucumbers are broadcast spawners, which can limit the fertilization success of a species in exploited populations.
| title | scope | timing | score | severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Use trade
In the Western Central Pacific, this species is harvested in Palau, Guam, CNMI, FSM, Kiribati, Tonga, PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji and Torres Strait (Australia). In Fiji and Solomon Islands it is considered to have a low commercial value (Kinch et al. 2008). In Asia, this species is of commercial importance in China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Viet Nam. In Thailand, all sea cucumbers were harvested for local consumption, where this species was collected commercially in Rayong and Chon Buri in eastern Thailand. In Indonesia, it is heavily exploited (Choo 2008). In Sri Lanka, this species was one of the two main species in trade where fishermen got a very low price due to the high abundance, the price increased up as supplies dwindled (Conand 2008). It is of low commercial importance in Kenya and Madagascar (Muthiga et al. 2007), China (Chen 2004). It is also fished in Eritea and is fished when found in the Philippines.
This species is used for aquaria (Toral-Granda 2007).
Text summary
This species may be present in some marine protected areas within its range. In PNG, it has a minimum live size of 25 cm TL and 10 cm TL dry (Kinch et al. 2008) and a compulsory closed season between October 1st and January 15th or when TAC is reached. TAC is province specific (Bruckner 2005).
With the inclusion of Isostichopus fuscus in CITES Appendix III, a debate started whether the conservation of this group may be addressed with their inclusion in one of CITES appendices. The debate started in Conference of the Parties (CoP) 12 (Santiago, Chile) and extended to CoP 14 (The Hague, Netherlands). No recent advances have been achieved on this matter. For a revision of the possible pros and cons of a CITES listing, please see Toral-Granda (2007).