Sea Cucumber Aquaculture and
Enhancement: Present and Future
Cao ,Shan Mao. Professor
Dalian Fisheries University
June 16, 2011
实验内容
Content
Farming and Enhancement of Sea Cucumber
One
1
Economic Value of Sea Cucumber
2
Production Area and Production Level of Sea Cucumber
3
Seed Production of Sea Cucumber in Hatcheries
4
Pond Culture of Sea Cucumber
5
Other Type of Farming Sea Cucumber
6
Disease of Sea Cucumber
Enhancement of Sea Cucumber
7
Two
Problems Exist
1
Three
Fundamental and Applied Research Fall Behind
Future Projection and Strategy
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: holothuroidea
There are around 40 edible species
among the more than 900 species that
exist world wide. More than 20
species of sea cucumber are edible in
China, the best quality sea cucumber
is from Northern Chinese coast:
Apostichopus japonicus (Selenka).
History of Sea Cucumber Consumption economic value(1)
Sea Cucumber is one of the “Eight Precious Seafood”, The Chinese started
to eat sea cucumber long time ago. There is a record to state that the Qin
emperor ate sea cucumber as health enhancement food 2000 years ago.
During Three Kingdoms period, Shen, Ying of Kingdom Wu wrote a book
“Coastal Water Encyclopedia”, He described the sea cucumber as following: “
Earth Meat(one type of sea cucumber)is black, have large spikes ,five inch
long, have intestine and belly, no eyes , have thirty feet ,BBQ to eat” , Sea
cucumber entered into Forbidden City and became the royal meal in Ming
Dynasty , Sea cucumber was the favorite food of Zhu, Yuan Zhang ,the first
emperor of Ming Dynasty.
Sea cucumber has been one of most famous dishes in celebration feast
and festival since Ming and Qing dynasty. More and more general public ate sea
cucumber and the cooking skills got improved for sea cucumber then lead it
more famous and popular, “Bamboo Shadow Sea Cucumber” was one example.
Sea cucumber is the popular healthy food in Chinese community world wide.
There is another record to describe sea cucumber from “ Amendment of
Herb Encyclopedia”《本草纲目拾遗》, edited by Zhao, Xuemin before the end of
Qing Dynasty:“ Sea cucumber from east Liaoning has darker color body, meat is
sticky and has spikes, called Liao Sea cucumber, It’s quality is the best,
good for man’s health, help blood production, cure diarrhea and ulceration
,the medical effect is similar to Ginseng, so it is named “sea ginseng”- sea
cucumber.”
Nutritional Value of Sea cucumber
economic value (2)
Recent medical research
proved that the muscle
aging is related to
reduction of Acid
Mucopolysaccharide
Healthy food
•21.5% protein wet sea
Cucumber, Acid
mucopolysaccharide
•Sea Cucumber saponins、
other biological active
substances, and minerals
Can be use to cure or as additional
therapeutic method for some disease:
Tuberculosis(TB)、Stress,erection
problem, Stomach and duodenum
ulceration, diabetes, and aplastic
anemia.
Cancer resistant effect,
enhancement of immune
system,Anti-blood
clotting,anti fungus.
Market Trend
economic value (3）
The Chinese sea cucumber price keeps going up
in recent years. The live, fresh sea cucumber was
60 RMB /kg ( around CDN $9.0 /kg)in year 2002 ,
and
increased to about 210 RMB/kg (around CDN $30.0 /kg)
In year 2010,
Salted and dry sea cucumber are always much more expensive. .
Sea Cucumber Production
economic value (4）
 By Stats,The total production of sea cucumber(dry) was 2,375 tonnes
in 1997 ,4000 tonnes in 2002,7000 tonnes in 2003，and increased to
80,000 tonnes in 2009。And the value was 20 billion RMB (3.0
billion Canadian dollars) in 2009.
 The total production of Chinese sea cucumber was 100,000 tonnes in
2010，80% of the production is from aquaculture and enhancement.
Sea cucumber aquaculture is mainly in Shandong province and
Liaoning province ，the farming area occupied about 1,500,000 mu
(100,000 hectares),60% farming area located in Shandong province .
 Along with the improvement of living quality of the general
public , the sea cucumber is getting more recognized than ever
from coastal area to the inland of China. More and more people
start to eat sea cucumber，plus the high demand for further
advanced processing，the estimated market demand for the sea
cucumber is above 150,000 tonnes per year，the current production
level is far from satisfying the demand。
Importation of Sea Cucumber
economic value(5)
 Import large amount of sea cucumber from Japan ,the U.S.,
Canada(Red Sea Cucumber)、Russia、Ecuador、Indonesia and
Norway。
 To meet the customer demands from different levels , The
final product of sea cucumber include: live and fresh,
instant cooked, salted, traditional salted dry, freeze
dry, salt removed dry and capsule.
Diffent Sizes of Sea cucumber juveniles
1,000,000 juveniles/kg
200,000 juveniles/kg
20,000 juveniles/kg
6,000/kg
2,000/kg
1,400/kg
600 juveniles/kg
200 seeds/kg
Pond culture of Sea Cucumber
Pond culture (1)
 Due to the prawn diseases happened in 1990s, a
lots of prawn ponds were unused , so the farmers
started pond culture of sea cucumber in Shan
Dong province and Dalia. Currently pond culture
has become the most important method of sea
cucumber farming .
池塘的类型
Concrete pond
Introduction of
Artificial Reef
人工造礁的类型
Artificial Reef from Scallop nets
Artificial Reef from rocks
Pond culture(2)
Techniques for pond culture
 The ponds should be located in a area with free tidal
current ，the size of one pond is between 30-300mu(2-20
hectares)，water depth is above 1.8-2 m, salinity is above
26 ppt year-round. Easy in and out water circulation is
important.
 Rocks and concrete are to be applied to strengthen the
inner layer of pond wall.
 The best substrate of pond bottom would be solid mud-sand
or sand- mud, the substrate will affect the growth rate
and survival tremendously。
 The original prawn ponds usually require some improvements
or modifications for the sea cucumber culture purposes
including: mud removal, disinfection and reef building.
Seeding (out-planting)
Pond culture (3)
 Seed outplanting happens in spring and fall，fall season
is from October to November. Seeding time is not supposed
to be too lat. Seeding should stop once the water
temperature falls below 7℃.
 Spring seeding is from end of March to May. Once the
temperature reaches 8℃ then the outplanting can start.
 The seeding density depends on the pond condition and seed
size. Usually 10-15 seeds/m2 for 2-4cm seed in the fall
out planting season , and less than 10 seeds/m2 for 5-6cm
seed in spring out planting season.
Pond culture routine management
Pond culture(4)
 Water quality control: Routine monitoring
salinity , temperature ,pH ,alkalinity ,water
color, transparency ，and adjust if required.
 No feeding required in most of ponds. Sea
cucumbers mainly depend on natural food
resources.
 Clean up inedible kelp from the sea cucumber
pond ASAP.
Other types of farming
 Intertidal Dam Pond Culture
 Dam pond can be build by concrete based on the
local geomorphological characters in a shallow
intertidal area, or a bay with rocky substrate, or
by small reef islands area, where there is natural
distribution of sea cucumber. The artificial reefs
are built by rocks inside the pond. The height of
the dam is based on the high tide line, usually is
higher than 2.0m above the ground. There are
water intake and release holes underneath the
dam, so the water exchange can be driven by
tidal action. Seeding density:30 seeds/m2 for 12cm seed, 10 seeds/m2 For 5cm seed.
Other types of farming
Longline culture in open sea
In an area there is less wave action , free tidal
current, the existing long line system can be used
for sea cucumber farming. The mesh size of the
lantern nets is around 1.0cm, open and close by
zipper, so it is easy to do the routine feeding
operation. Scallop net, abalone net and modified
plastic bucket can all be used for sea cucumber
culture, and most facilities can do the poly-culture
with abalone. Seeding density is around 200～
300seeds/m2 for 5 cm seed, placed 5-8m below the
water surface, the distance between two down lines
is around 3-4m. The density has to be reduced as the
sea cucumbers grow. This type of technique can be
used as poly-culture with kelp as well.
Other types of farming
 Seabed cage culture
In a bay area, round or rectangle cages (2ｍ
×1.5ｍ×1ｍ) were built with steel bars,
covered with 1.0cm polyethylene mesh netting
outside the cage and hold rocks inside the cage.
Rocks will occupy 1/2～2/3 of the whole cage
volume. A 5cm space is needed to keep the
rock from the frame of the cage to prevent
netting damage due to friction. Seeding
density:3～5cm seed at 200～300seeds/m2.
Routine management includes monitoring for
mesh damage and reducing the sea cucumber’s
density through the grow-out period.
Enhancement of Sea Cucumber
 It is widely recognized that the natural
resources and populations of sea cucumber need
to be recovered and improved, Restoration of
their natural habitat , relocation of broodstock
and release sea cucumber juveniles to the ocean
might be the options. Japan started these types
of practices earlier than China. Sea cucumber
enhancement processes have started in many areas
of China already. The main enhancement methods
include: artificial reef building , release of
sea cucumber juveniles and broodstock.
Sea Cucumber Disease
Sea cucumber disease(1)
symptoms：
Inactive , contracted body size , transparency
membrane， rotten , body dissolved
Rotten skeletal plate of juveniles
bad substrate
Wrong feeding
regime
Causes
prevention：
Control water quality
and feeding
Not enough water
exchange
Microbial infection
Sea Cucumber Disease
Sea cucumber disease (2)
Symptoms：
auricularia larvae; stomach wall
Thickened,, stomach shrink, empty , rotten
Bad quality of food
Rotten stomach in larval stage
Bad quality of zygote
Causes
Prevention：
High quality of
broodstock and food
Bacteria infection
Deteriorate water quality
Sea Cucumber Disease
Sea cucumber disease(3)
Symptoms：
auricularia larvae skin
overgrow and darkened, rotten,
body dissolved, death.
Deteriorate water quality
perimeter skin rotten
of auricularia larvae
Causes
Prevention:
Improve water quality
(water exchange)
Bacteria infection
Problems occurred in Sea cucumber
Aquaculture
 Related fundamental and applied research work fall
behind
Genetics
One of the key factors limits the development of sea
cucumber farming industry is lack of good quality of
broodstock. No selective breeding and directional
breeding in place and only rely on wild captured adults
as broodstock.
On the other hand，there is huge potential to the
genetic research on growth rate , disease resistance and
production level. The sea cucumber farming industry needs
to utilize the combination of modern bio-techniques with
traditional technology to develop better quality and more
productive broodstock .
Research falls behind the current
industry demand
Immunology
Biology
Skin rotten
Gutting
Regeneration
Ecology
Physiology
Summer
hibernation
SOP( Standard Operation Procedures)
Standard Operation Procedure need to be established to keep
the sea cucumber industry developed in a healthy way.
Strengthen the work force training process
Providing better training for the technicians and
workers both in sea cucumber hatcheries and farms
so they have the fundamental knowledge and
techniques of sea cucumber biology , ecology and
breeding. Building up the industry practice
standard by applying SOP to improve the
technology and increase production level in sea
cucumber hatcheries and farms.
Thank you !