Catastrophic depletion of reef-associated sea cucumbers: resource management/reef resilience issues for an Indonesian marine park and the wider Indo-Pacific

Commercial species of shallow-water, tropical, aspidochirotid sea cucumbers (beche-de-mer) in the Indo-West Pacific, many of them, at maturity, large and conspicuous benthic members of coral reef or seagrass/sediment environments, represent a high-value marine resource, traditionally fished for centuries, but which currently are being heavily overfished, largely through a growing demand from mainland China and regional markets in the supply chain. Population losses are exemplified by a study at Bunaken National Marine Park, North Sulawesi, Indonesia, where densities of commercial sea cucumber species are very low following earlier harvesting and where drop-out of species records has occurred over a 17-year study period. Sea cucumber populations have not recovered from overexploitative depredations despite the designation of this area as a National Marine Park in 1991 and the commencement of protection measures. This pattern of overexploitation, replicated across the tropical Indo-Pacific, has detrimental implications for many coastal communities traditionally or currently dependent on this high-value resource. In addition there are potentially serious implications of overharvesting - reviewed here - for reef ecosystem resilience. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.