Siviri village bans sea cucumber harvesting

The Village Council of Siviri in north Efate has placed a ban on harvesting of sea cucumbers within the village’s boundary.

Speaking on behalf of the chairman of the Village Council, Thomas Steele, the Council Secretary, said a meeting of the council last Saturday agreed to ban harvesting of sea cucumbers.

“The main reason for the decision is because we are still recovering from the devastation of tropical cyclone Pam and the challenges faced by the people are now being compounded by the effects the El Nino, and the sea is where most of the resources from our livelihoods come from,” he added.

As part of its decision, Siviri Village Council has appealed to the people of nearby villages – Sunae and Tasariki on Moso Island, Tanoliu, Saama and Emua on Efate mainland to respect the ban in the sea boundary Siviri shares with Tasariki in the South and Emua in the north.

Steele explained that they had found that in the past, soon after they harvested the sea cucumber, the people started to suffer from the effects of fish poisoning.

“This is because sea cucumbers clean the reefs and when the sea cucumbers are over-harvested this results in the problem with ciguatera.”

Ciguatera is a foodborne illness caused by eating certain reef fish whose flesh is contaminated with a toxin made by dinoflagellates such as Gambierdiscus toxicus which live in tropical and subtropical waters, according to web explanation.

The sea cucumber harvesting season is now in effect and people in other villagers on Efate and offshore islands are benefiting massively from this due in most part to the current high price for the product.

In the past, dealers used to buy the sea cucumber in kilograms, but now they have prices for individual sea cucumber, fetching as much as 300 to 400 vatu for one, and the most expensive variety reach as high as Vt1,800 for one sea cucumber.

Although the price is good, the people of Siviri have decided that they would earn more from the ban in the long run because they would sustain their livelihoods from continued sale of fish and other marine resources long after the earnings from the sea cucumbers have been exhausted.