Sea cucumber species of Tuticorin, Gulf of Mannar, Southeast coast of India

Sea cucumbers are commercially important echinoderms, which are exclusively live in the marine environment. They inhabit different depth of the ocean as well as various habitats. Holothurians are exploited commercially, for the raw bodywall or viscera, but mostly for a processed dry product called ‘beche-de-mer, in addition to many health products. Due to high demand from the international market, ease of harvesting and low cost related to processing, the sea cucumbers have been over exploited in India too. Consequently, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, has imposed a total ban on both fishery and trade of sea cucumbers. Hence all sea cucumber species were listed under Schedule 1 of the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972 since 2003, which has caused a severe impact on the livelihood of several thousands of fishers along the coastal belt. The survey conducted by Zoological Survey of India and Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay revealed the availability of seven to nine species from this region. The present work summarizes the description on 18 numbers of sea cucumber species collected from Tuticorin coast before the enforcement of the ban on sea cucumber collection. Among the group, only ten sea cucumbers were commercial species used for processing purpose and eight were non–commercial species. The present work highlighted the emphasis of population studies of these resources from various habitats and depth along the Indian coast