Report on the FAO Workshop on Sea Cucumber Fisheries: An Ecosystem Approach to Management in the Pacific (SCEAM Pacific)

FAO, 2012.
Report on the FAO Workshop on Sea Cucumber Fisheries: An Ecosystem Approach to Management in the Pacific (SCEAM Pacific), Nadi, Fiji, 15–18 November 2011.
FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Report. No. 1003. Rome. 44p.

Widespread overfishing threatens the sustainability of sea cucumber fisheries and the important role they play in the livelihoods of coastal fishers. The SCEAM Pacific workshop was jointly funded and coordinated by the FAO, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and Southern Cross University in November 2011. The workshop brought together fishery managers from 13 Pacific island countries to foster improved management plans for PACIFIC sea cucumber fisheries. Seminars by the workshop facilitators presented contemporary fisheries science and new paradigms for management. Pre-workshop questionnaires, workgroup sessions and plenary discussions were used to help participants decide on appropriate objectives, regulatory measures and management actions for each fishery. The workshop outputs given in this report reveal the constraints and issues facing Pacific sea cucumber fisheries, and the proposed management changes and research priorities of the fishery managers.