Download: ACRS submission for reassessment of sea cucumber fishery

A great proportion of ACRS members conduct research on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR), including several prominent sea cucumber experts. Based on current scientific consensus, the ACRS advises the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment to strongly reconsider harvesting the black teatfish, Holothuria whitmaei, and white teatfish, H. fuscogilva for export. We encourage interested readers to download and read the attached submission PDF, in which the ACRS makes the following key recommendations:

• The Sea Cucumber Fishery (East Coast) upholds the CITES listings of the black teatfish
• (Holothuria whitmaei) and white teatfish (Holothuria fuscogilva)
• The black teatfish fishery is not approved for ‘wildlife trade operation’
• The white teatfish fishery is not approved for ‘wildlife trade operation’
• The recent (2019) reopening of the black teatfish fishery is reversed
• Management considers antagonistic effects of ocean warming on winter spawning

We would like to thank councillors Kennedy Wolfe and Catheline Froehlich for writing, and the ACRS council for editing