Abstract
In this paper I will discuss variation in holothurian resource exploitation in the Philippines generally and trepang fishing especially on Mangsee Island, in the southern part of Palawan Province, where people fish in the Spratly Islands. Holothruian has been a major exporting product from maritime Southeast Asia to China for, at least, three hundred years. Many scholars working in Southeast Asian maritime societies have noted the dynamic human networks involved in pursuing dried sea products like trepang or shark fins. However, few scholars have dealt with the actual materials of the trade. This paper will establish that 22 species of holothurian are traded in the Philippines at present, and that the price of the most expensive is some 80 times greater than that of the cheapest. Moreover, in recent years, lower quality trepang has been acquiring more commercial value. Holothurian is not just an exclusive expensive foodstuff as mentioned in historical records. It is also an ordinary material used in the present. The cheaper trepang species are consumed more than ever before in the Philippines and elsewhere. One of the most important aspects of the Philippine trade is that the country exports a huge volume of trepang of lower commercial value. There is a vast difference in the industry in the past and the present and we have to pay careful attention to the continuity and discontinuity in the industry.
