Abstract
The IUCN listed Apostichopus japonicus (Japanese Spiky Sea Cucumber) “endangered” in their Red List of Threatened Species in 2013 because of population decrease for the last 30 to 40 years. In order to investigate its validity, the present article surveys current A. japonicus fisheries in Japan: harvest data and export data. The present article asserts that one of the possible reasons for the decline in A. japonicus harvest after the 1970s in Japan is due to a lack of fishing effort. To support this speculation, harvests of A. japonicus began increasing again in the early 2000s due to a price increase. Around the mid 2000s, new types of sea cucumber products such as salt-preserved body wall, became common among Japanese processors. They are exported to China and processed into a dried product there. To confirm the new trend in the sea cucumber trade, an exploration of Japanese A. japonicus in the Hong Kong and Chinese markets is provided. The last part of the article points out the problems regarding the shift of sea cucumber processing from dried to salt-preserved products. Finally, the article introduces efforts of local sea cucumber fishermen and processors to enhance the domestic sea cucumber market in order to maintain sustainable sea cucumber fisheries. The first half of the article was already issued in the Vol. 220, No. 3, 2015 issue of this Journal and the present issue will deal with the last half.
