On Thursday, May 18 at 11am, in the ECIMAT auditorium, a new session of the Café con Sal Conference Series will take place. On this occasion, it will be Tania Ballesteros, research support technician in the area of biological resources and marine cultures of the CSIM-ECIMAT Singular Center, who will present the first results of the study of the reproductive cycle of the sea cucumber Holothuria forskali in the Ría de Vigo.
Sea cucumbers are a highly sought-after marine resource in the East and on the Mediterranean coasts, and the search for new species in other distribution areas is on the rise due to the overexploitation of traditional fisheries. In Galicia, the exploitation of sea cucumbers began in 2013 with the exploitation of Parastichopus regalis by the Vigo Shipowners’ Cooperative as a discard product from the Gran Sol. In 2016, the first exploitation plans for the Holothuria forskali species were approved for the fishermen’s guilds of Cangas, O Grove, Coruña and Barallobre, which meant an extraction of 50 tons. For 2017, these figures can be expected to increase as a result of the approval of new exploitation plans along the Galician coast.
Despite the high catches and the granting of new exploitation plans in Galicia, many aspects of the biology of this species are still unknown, such as reproduction, essential for the establishment of closures – only studied in Portugal and the United Kingdom -, growth, necessary to know the age at which individuals form part of the exploitable biomass, or the standardization of biometric measures that allow controlling the evolution of the stock.
Given these needs, the Cangas council and the CSIM-ECIMAT Singular Center are beginning to monitor the reproductive cycle and establish synergies and lines of work with other interested agents, in order to design the lines of research and collaboration necessary to increase studies on this resource and thus ensure its sustainable fishing exploitation.
In this conference, Tania Ballesteros will present the preliminary results of the reproductive cycle of this species, as well as the lines of research that are currently being opened.
See the Conference poster and the Complete Program of the Café con Sal Conference Series.
