Sea cucumber is highly valued in local and international markets for its medicinal benefits and uses, and i t also supports livelihood in coastal communities. Plaridel, Misamis Occidenta l is one of the municipalities in the Philippines that engages in sea cucumber trade. However, due to poor fisheries management, the natural population of sea cucumbers in the area, particularly, sandfish Holothuria scabra , rapidly declines because of overfishing, commercial fishing, and gleaning. To address this, stock enhancement activities using hatchery-reared juveniles were done in Panalsalan for several years and adopt the family-based sandfish farming intervention to help inc rease the production of sandfish whilst offer livelihood opportunities to the residents.
Seven (7) family beneficiaries were given 22, 0 00 hatchery produced early-stage juveniles to start the ocean nursery operation in floating hapas for two months , and gr ow-out productions in sea pens for at least six months, until harvest to recommended harvestable size of approx. 320g. In this approach, family beneficiaries monitored and guard their own hapas and pens, and the wives and children were given many opportunities to help in rearing the sandfish. It also improved livelihood security and reduced the dependence of wild fishery resources through buyback mechanism , a peso (Php 1.00) for every juvenile survived in nursery and Php 30.00/kg for adult sandfish.
However, there were also common key issues identified in all project sites during the farming period - the presence of predators, the recurrence of the poachers , and the lack of knowledge of sandfish farming and some fishery management . Below is the comparison of the lessons learned from the three project sites in Northern Mindanao, Philippines.
Sandfish farming does not provide an instant income to alleviate poverty but gives a substantial financial contribution to the lives of coastal people and contributes something beneficial to the community.