Establishing a sustainable foundation for the growth of the mariculture sector in PNG, enhancing capacity within partner organisations and coastal communities.

This technical report presents 8 case studies of the experiences of communities and researchers involved in community-based sea ranching over a 10-year period.

Final report for a project aimed at supporting sustainable aquaculture in Pacific island countries, and assisting Indigenous aquaculture in tropical Australia.

This project aimed to develop commercial-scale hatchery and grow-out technologies for sandfish, recognising that adapting systems to participating communities' social, institutional and bio-physical settings was critical. View project page

This project aimed to improve the income of fishers in Kiribati, Tonga and Fiji through improving the quality of post-harvest processing. Sea cucumbers are worth $20-50 million/year in exports from Pacific island countries; the second most valuable marine export from the region after tuna. Wild harvests provide income to around 300,000 small-scale fishers in the western Pacific, but returns to fishers are less than optimal, largely due to poor knowledge of proper post-harvest handling and processing methods.

Presentation from PARDI Impact workshops held in Fiji, June 2015 Improving Sea Cucumber Processing  

PARDI workshop presention, Fiji 2015 Pearls–spat collection program –Paul Southgate

This manual, produced by the Southern Cross University and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community with the financial support of ACIAR, is designed for sea cucumber fishers in the Pacific islands. It provides best-practice processing methods that can be applied by fishers using resources in their own villages.

ACIAR has provided significant, long-term research investment into tropical sea cucumber aquaculture in the Asia–Pacific region. Work has included large-scale hatchery culture of sandfish (a species of sea cucumber), techniques for releasing cultured juveniles into the wild, and sea ranching and pond culture. ACIAR, together with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, organised a symposium to review this work, as well as research from other parts of the world.

Outcomes of the ‘Papua New Guinea, Pacific Islands and Northern Australia Sea Cucumber Fisheries Management Workshop’, held at Motupore Island Research Centre, Papua New Guinea, 20–23 March 2006.

Sandfish is arguably the most commercially valuable of the tropical sea cucumber species that are processed into beche-de-mer.