A seemingly endless demand in Asia has opened the eyes of fishers in the Arctic where seabeds can be covered with sea cucumbers. An expert is worried about the sustainability of continued fishing for the species.
It has a rather culinary name, but the sea cucumber is not a particularly appetizing creature. Savour, for instance, this description from a scientific article:
“They are often cylindrical or lumpy, of an earthy color, covered in slime or fleshy protrusions, without recognizable eyes or distinctive features other than a mouth and anus, they live in mud and sediment, and sometimes spew their entrails and release pungent smells,” reports Hamel et al (2024).
But despite these questionable features, the sea cucumber is a prized delicacy, especially in Asia. There, the Japanese sea cucumber has a long history of human consumption, and one kilogram of it can sell for more than 3000 euro.
This seafood is so popular, in fact, that for decades more and more taxonomic classes have been caught or farmed commercially. Today, more than 80 different species of sea cucumber from across the world are sold on the Asian market.
One of them, the northern sea cucumber Cucumaria frondosa, has such distinct nutritional value and is so widespread in Arctic waters that it has become increasingly lucrative to catch it. So much so that the Greenland government recently announced that it would allow for experimental fishing of 800 metric tonnes of the species, experiments that the local seafood giant Royal Greenland will carry out.
“Essentially, it’s because everyone wants in,” explained Annie Mercier, Professor at the Department of Ocean Sciences of Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador, who has spent more than 30 years studying sea cucumbers.
“Some of the traditional fisheries are experiencing difficulties so a lot of countries are turning to new products. Sea cucumbers are popular because they can be sold at high prices,” she said.
Caught in Canada in the 1980s
The northern sea cucumber first entered the market on an experimental basis in the 1980s. Back then, US and Canadian fishermen kept getting the species in their nets as bycatch when they did bottom trawling. At some point, Annie Mercier recounts, they realized that they could make a substantial profit by selling them on Asian markets. And so they started to do so.
The northern sea cucumber is more abundant than tropical species. This made it easier to catch, because as opposed to the regions where sea cucumber was traditionally fished and eaten, it could be caught using bottom trawling nets.
Soon, the market was flooded with the northern sea cucumber, but because of its peculiarities and strangeness, it never reached the value of the most prized sea cucumbers of them all, the Japanese Apostichopus japonicus.
This remains the case to this day, but its pristine, subarctic and Arctic origins have become part of its appeal, and Cucumaria frondosa has increased its popularity. Today, a dried kilo of it now sells at prices around 220 euro, still some way from its Japanese cousin. Still a high enough price, though, that many governments and fishermen have become interested.
“In the US, they have essentially wiped out populations of this species as they were taking advantage of its southernmost distribution. But in Canada, Iceland, Northern Europe, and now Greenland it is still being caught. We also suspect that Russia exploits some populations, but we know very little about what’s going on there,” Annie Mercier said.
Good in stir-fries
But what, then, causes such high demand for a species that looks, in Western eyes, so unappetizing?
Well, apparently it is delicious.
It is sold at high-end restaurants in China and in Japan, and there is also a tradition of eating it on many Pacific islands. It is eaten raw, marinated and in stir-fries. Most often it is sold dried but can also be purchased raw, and it is even a component of some beauty products.
“There are certain recipes for stir-fries that I really like, and I also like them marinated. I was once at a conference in Asia where we were served entire sea cucumbers in a soup and that was a bit too much for me,” Annie Mercier said.
The sea cucumber found in the Arctic even has some features that make it stand out from most other species. Its texture, its body wall, and its gonad are very different, and the fact that it feeds on phytoplankton and grows slowly in cold water makes its nutritional value different too.
“I tell people that the difference among species of sea cucumbers can be like the difference between a guppy and a salmon. They are both fish they differ fundamentally from a biological perspective. In sea cucumbers it is just less visible to our eyes,” Annie Mercier said.
At first, these differences, which affected the taste, made the northern sea cucumber difficult to sell but now that customers have become used to them, they have become selling points in themselves. So much so that Annie Mercier even noticed species that were not from the Arctic marketed as if they were.
Signs of decline
So, it would seem that the experimenters in Greenland will be fishing in lucrative waters: the demand is sky-high, and the supply in the cold Arctic waters appears endless. But, as with all in-demand resources, that might not be the case forever.
In Eastern Canada, where the northern sea cucumber has been caught commercially on a large scale for 20 years, signs of decline have started to appear. Signs that have not yet been confirmed but that are indicated by a decrease in the size of sea cucumbers in some catches.
“The biomass of sea cucumbers here is so huge that people have felt that they could keep tapping into it with no effect. But this is a very slow-growing and long-lived species, so the effects of the fishery are also long-term and will be more difficult to reverse,” Annie Mercier, who is based in Newfoundland, said.
There are not enough assessments to conclusively determine if a population decline has started to happen, Annie Mercier said. But if it is the case, it would have downstream effects not only for the species itself but for the entire ecosystem it is a part of.
“The fact that they are so abundant presumably means that they play a vital role in these marine ecosystems. At my lab we are only just starting to explore what will happen if they are removed from these areas,” she said.
To help ensure sustainable fishing of the species, Annie Mercier was part of the North Atlantic Sea Cucumber Network, a consortium established for that very purpose. According to its website, no one from the sea cucumber curious Greenland are currently members.
Ole Ellekrog, Polar Journal AG
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