Online trade in sea cucumber, fish maw threatens their survival: NGO

The thriving online trade and growing appetite for two seafood items - fish maw and sea cucumber - in Singapore and Malaysia are threatening their population in the wild, warned a wildlife trade monitoring organisation.

Notably, several threatened and internationally regulated species, including those protected under Singapore and Malaysian laws, are being sold online, said non-governmental organisation (NGO) Traffic in a report released yesterday.

The report, which is calling for more stringent monitoring of the trade in the two marine delicacies, had tracked advertisements for those products online over 11 days between June and July in 2020.

It then returned to the sites on Jan 14 this year and found that trade was still active and, in fact, included species not offered in 2020.

Among the sites monitored by Traffic were Singapore-based e-commerce and seafood websites such as Carousell, Shopee, Lazada, Song Fish Dealer and Natural Brand.

Between June 17 and July 6 in 2020, 33 online sites from both countries had numerous listings offering at least 5,540kg of sea cucumber and fish maw products altogether.

"Some online sellers also claimed they were able to supply large amounts on a monthly basis," said Ms Kanitha Krishnasamy, director for Traffic in South-east Asia.

Fish maw and sea cucumber are two of the four traditional seafood delicacies widely enjoyed in Asia, alongside abalone and shark's fin.

Sea cucumber - which is found on the sea floor worldwide - is highly valued for its nutritional and medicinal benefits.

Fish maw refers to the dried swim bladders of large fish such as sturgeon.

For the report, researchers were able to identify about 20 species of sea cucumbers put up for sale online. Of these, six species are listed as endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

They include the prickly sea cucumber and sandfish, also known as wen tu shen in Chinese.

Three of the 20 species are listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. This means that the trade of the three species, including white teatfish or zhu po shen, must be controlled.

In addition to recommending that the authorities monitor both the physical and online trade of these products, the Traffic report suggested that countries introduce a traceability system to verify that only legal and sustainable products are sold in the market.

They should also carry out DNA analysis of the products being sold online and in physical stores, so that the species being traded can be better identified.

This will help the authorities to zero in on the proportion of species that are threatened, endangered or prohibited from trade, said the report.

Mr David Lim, managing director of local sea cucumber wholesaler Mr SeaCucumber, said the majority of his dried products come from wild-caught species instead of farms.

Associate Professor Matthew Tan, chief executive of aquaculture engineering firm Assentoft Aqua Asia, noted that the Maldives has been a prime location to farm sea cucumbers sustainably.

The archipelago has hatcheries, and atolls - ring-shaped coral reefs encircling lagoons - that are used to rear sea cucumbers.

For example, local mariculture company Isles of Eden has been rearing the popular sandfish sea cucumber - or Holothuria scabra - in the Maldives.

Prof Tan said it is more challenging to obtain fish maw sustainably as it would take too much time and resources for aquaculture farmers to breed a fish just for its swim bladder. Most fish maw is sourced from wild fisheries and the trafficking trade.

However, local fish producer Barramundi Group's fish maw products are sourced from the swim bladders of barramundi reared in its offshore open-sea farms here.

The company's chief marketing officer James Kwan said: "This is part of our approach to ensure we fully utilise each fish from head to bones."

With the Chinese New Year approaching, restaurants and suppliers here are seeing a spike in demand for sea cucumber and fish maw delicacies.

To find out if a seafood product on the market is sustainable, consumers can look out for two certification standards - the Aquaculture Stewardship Council for farmed seafood and the MSC Fisheries Standard used to assess if a fishery is well-managed, with wild populations and ecosystems not suffering, said Prof Tan.