The 2009–2016 Belize sea cucumber fishery: Resource use patterns, management strategies and socioeconomic impacts

Abstract

While sea cucumbers have been fished in Belizean waters for ∼20 years for trade through Guatemala and the local Asian market in Belize, harvesting for export to international markets only started with the establishment of the sea cucumber fishery regulations in 2009. The fishery included two main species, Holothuria mexicana and Isostichopus badionotus but only the former was legally managed by the Belize Fisheries Department through a closed season and catch reporting. By 2016, H. mexicana was considered overfished and in 2017, the entire fishery was closed. Here we provide a comprehensive analysis of this fishery in Belize from 2009–2016 with the goal to make recommendations for policy development. This study combined key informant interviews with secondary data collection and observation of sea cucumber fishing, landing and processing. Fishers hand-picked sea cucumbers using mask and snorkel and sold their catch to exporters or middlemen. Sea cucumber harvesting increased fishers’ income to 154 times the minimum wage in 2010 and 5 times the minimum wage in 2016, concurrent with a drastic decline of stocks. Some fishers rated sea cucumber harvesting as their primary fishing activity but knew very little about their biology or ecology. They were concerned about the decrease in catch that forced them to fish in deeper waters and about the illegal fishing by Guatemalan and Honduran fishers in Belizean waters. Sea cucumbers sold locally since 2009 were neither reflected in the market economy nor used to adjust the Total Allowable Catch by the Belize Fisheries Department. Maintaining the long-term sustainability of this fishery will rely on greater investments in enforcing fisheries regulations, in scientific research to determine the viability of sea cucumber fishing, and in the education of fishers. A closer collaboration with fishers is necessary to adequately inform future management decisions on the socioeconomic consequence of overfishing.