Redfish, Greenfish, Blackfish.
Pinkfish, Curryfish, Lollyfish.
They sound like Dr. Seuss characters and certainly look like they should be.
Yet these sausage-shaped, rubbery animals stippled in fleshy bumps are not fish at all, but an invertebrate in the group that includes sea stars, sea urchins and sand dollars. Sea cucumbers, referred to as “bêche-de-mer” or “trepang” when sold as dried food, are largely motionless creatures, which is why divers scoop hundreds of them up daily to export to Asia. A single high value individual in Fiji can fetch about $80 US, notes one report.
Sea cucumbers are not a new food craze; the Chinese have eaten them at least since the 1600s and sought this delicacy from Fiji since the early 1800s. Today, the increasing market demand and the push to dive deeper for these invertebrates and start new fisheries in other countries have sent stocks declining worldwide. Some have disappeared locally in Pacific Island nations, and in Fiji, divers are actually dying for them. 
A surf redfish, a high-valued sea cucumber, wedged into reef crevices near Mago Island in Fiji’s Lau group. Photo courtesy of Stacy Jupiter
Sea cucumbers are often found just offshore, in sea grass beds, on the sandy seafloor, or wedged within reefs. Their slow nature and proximity to shore encouraged an easy harvest, particularly without a specific management plan or an enforced licensing system in Fiji. They’ve been taken before they can mature, or thinned to such low densities that detecting the chemical cues to spawn may not occur, making reproduction and recovery unlikely in many areas. Pacific island countries such as Samoa that declared a moratorium on bêche-de-mer exports have seen no recovery for some species. In fact, moratoriums in other countries have placed the burden on Fiji, which harvests 27 sea cucumber species and has seen an increase in export companies. Remote areas or deeper waters, where species such as amberfish or tigerfish would be naturally protected by depth, are now also targets. To reach them, fishermen deploy sea cucumber bombs (heavy lines with hooks). They have also increased their use of underwater breathing apparatus (UBA), which is normally banned, but is used illegally or exempted in many cases by the Fijian government.
To meet the costs of dive gear that is often lent by middlemen and the pressure of quotas, the harvesters may extend their time underwater, disregarding dive protocol, which can lead to death or paralysis from decompression sickness. The Fiji Times reported in April of 2013, “over the past eight years, 18 villagers from Naviti died from the use of UBAs while more than 12 developed partial paralysis.” Household interviews conducted on some of Fiji’s islands also confirmed deaths and injuries from SCUBA diving for bêche-de-mer. Numerous local newspaper articles document this problem, and it’s likely many more accidents go unreported, particularly in the outer islands. 
Divers harvesting live sea cucumbers, like this prickly redfish, which IUCN classifies as Endangered, will sometimes bring up other species such as this giant clam. Photo by Stacy Jupiter
The Indo-Pacific region overall has experienced enormous fishing pressure, with more than half of the region’s sea cucumber stocks depleted or over-harvested, according to a study published antibiotics online in 2011. In fact, of the 1,200 species worldwide, 16 in the order Aspidochirotida are at risk of extinction and listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as either “Vulnerable” or “Endangered.” Nine of those are found in Fiji.
Read more at : http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0623-sri-west-fiji-sea-cucumbers.html
Dying for Fiji’s Sea Cucumbers
By: Amy West
Mongabay.org Special Reporting Initiative Fellow
June 23, 2014
