Why Sea Cucumbers Matter More Than You Think

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One of the most important animals in the
ocean is something most people never even

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think about, and we're removing it faster
than almost anything else in the world.

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It's an assorted week this week.

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And today, we're gonna be
talking about sea cucumbers.

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And today's episode answers
really one simple question.

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Why should anyone care
about sea cucumbers?

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That's really the question that I think a
lot of people are Because, you know, when

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you look at a sea cucumber, it doesn't
look the most appetizing, let's just say.

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It looks like a massive worm.

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They come in a variety of colors, right?

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They come in black, they come in pink,
they go white, they're gray, they're blue.

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Like, they come in a lot of different
colors, but they als- often have,

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like, detritus all over them.

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They're part of the echinoderm
family, like the starfish family but

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they don't look anything like a
starfish from what you would think.

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A starfish looks like a star.

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It has, like, the five sort of
limbs, and it looks kinda cool

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and just kinda cool to pick up.

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And you have sea stars as well,
which have more than five limbs,

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but they look like starfish.

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When people say starfish, they look
like, "That's really cool." But sea

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cucumbers are very different but they're
very important in the marine ecosystem

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cause they're, they just pick up stuff.

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They're detritus eaters, meaning
they just kinda pick up anything

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that's on the ground that they
can eat on the ocean bottom, and

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they're kinda really important.

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And so I want to kinda cover this 'cause
there was a recent article on Mongabay

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News, which we love Mongabay News here
on the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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And so I want to cover one of these.

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The article's looking at how these
animals are decreasing because of fishing,

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'cause people are eating sea cucumbers.

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Yes, people eat sea cucumbers, even
though they look a little different.

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So we're gonna talk about that today
because I think it's really interesting.

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I am a big echinoderm fan, so I love
starfish, I love sea stars, I love,

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sea urchins, I love sea cucumbers.

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I think they're all
very, very interesting.

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It's kind of an interesting thing to
cover sea cucumbers because of the

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fact that they are in demand right now.

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And we have to look out at
what's happening, right?

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Because what's happening to them tells
us a lot about how the ocean actually

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works and how it starts to break down.

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And so I think that's what we're
gonna be talking about today.

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A new study highlighted by Mongabay
is raising concerns about the

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global trade in sea cucumbers.

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Because like I said before, demand is
rising, and prices are so high for these.

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And harvesting is happening much
faster, and then many of the populations

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can recover for sea cucumbers.

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These animals are being collected
across tropical regions, often with

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weak monitoring, limited regulation,
and in many cases, illegal trade.

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When you are capturing these things,
it's not like regular fisheries where

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you put a pole, a rod and pole, or you
have a net and you try and pick them up.

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You can just go diving
and just pick them up.

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They're not gonna run from you.

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They're not gonna sit there and bite you.

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They're not gonna cause any harm.

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You have, uh, gloves on.

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You just pick them up, put them in your
net, and you can collect a bunch of them.

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You do have to be careful because
if you kill one of them, they

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release, like, this toxin out.

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It's a deterrent to do that.

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You do have to be careful.

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But it's really easy to just go snorkeling
or go free diving or even go scuba

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diving and just pick up as many as you
can because a lot of times when you see

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one, you're gonna see a bunch of them.

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They're not easy to spot, but I'm
sure these fishers are going out

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and they're finding them pretty
quickly because it's easy to do that.

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Most of them are dried and
sold as a luxury food product.

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And while that might sound like a niche
issue, it's not really because sea

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cucumbers are not just another species.

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Sea cucumbers actually act
like the ocean's cleanup crew.

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They sit on the bottom of the ocean, the
sea floor, and they process sediment.

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So essentially, they will go through
the sediment with their little filaments

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that they have, and they go through the
sediment, and they pick up all the stuff.

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They recycle all those nutrients.

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So all the stuff that goes in, all the
crap essentially that is on the bottom

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of the ocean gets cycled through the
sea cucumber, and then it gets recycled

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as nutrients, which is kinda cool.

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And they help keep ecosystems stable.

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So I think that's a really cool thing.

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They're like a sanitation
system or a recycling system.

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So when you have sea cucumbers that go
through an area, they will just kinda

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go through any kind of, like, ammonia or
anything that can cause ammonia, right,

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as part of the nutrient cycle, and
just kinda pick up stuff that gets bad.

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Like, if you ever have an aquarium
and you let all the fish poo and

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everything else, like, sit on the
bottom for too long, it breaks down.

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It can turn into ammonia, you get
what's called an ammonia bomb.

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So all the ammonia stays underneath the
sediment, and once that is released, you

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can actually kill animals from that.

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And so in the ocean, you can get the
same thing, but these animals will

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go through and they're the janitors.

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They just kinda clean up the system
and it's really cool that they do that.

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So without them, the sea floor
becomes a lot less healthy, and

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nutrients don't cycle in the same way.

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That can be a detriment to the
ocean floor, the ecosystem and

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over time, that affects everything
from coral reefs to fisheries, and

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that is something we don't want.

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But this is the part that people miss.

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The ocean doesn't run on the
animals we pay attention to.

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It runs on the ones we ignore.

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So it doesn't run on, like, salmon.

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It doesn't run on cod.

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It doesn't run on whales.

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I mean, they all help, and they
all contribute in some kind of way.

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Like, if you've ever heard of whale
fall, where whales die, they go

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to the bottom, they get eaten up.

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But all those microbes, invertebrates
like sea cucumbers and starfish and

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crabs and lobsters and shrimp and all the
different, like, worms that we see, those

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are the ones we kind of ignore, and those
are the ones that really help keep that

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bottom clean, keep that ocean cycling.

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And that's really important.

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And when those species disappear,
the ones that we normally ignore, the

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system doesn't collapse all at once.

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But it will, eventually.

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It weakens slowly.

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Now, I wanna interrupt just a little bit,
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Now, so the challenge of these sea
cucumbers, this whole sea cucumber issue,

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is that there's not a lack of knowledge.

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We know these species are vulnerable,
and we know trade is increasing, and we

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know regulation is also inconsistent.

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But the real issue is governance.

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When you go back and look at enforcement,
it's really difficult to enforce when

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these sea cucumbers are found all over
the place, especially in shallow areas.

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So If I were somebody on a beach, and
I went out snorkeling, just looking

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at snorkeling, and I just grab like a
net, like a bag that's in a form of a

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net, and I just start packing them in.

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And then I can go up into the
forest, I can go up down the

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road, and I can sell it to people.

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It's really easy to do.

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So it's difficult to enforce.

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And so the real issue is
what I say is governance.

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There's a global supply chain.

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So it's harvested in one region
and sold in another and monitored

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poorly across the entire system.

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So the opportunity is clear.

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We need better tracking of the supply
chain, which to be honest, is with

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a lot of these fisheries, right?

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We need better tracking.

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We need to track the entire supply chain.

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And then when we are able to
track the entire supply chain,

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we need stronger enforcement.

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And treating these species like critical
infrastructure, not just seafood.

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That's what we need to do.

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We need to really realize that these
species are very important to the ocean

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and very important to the ocean mechanics.

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And that's something that we need to
start really thinking about the ocean in

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general is we need to respect how the
ocean functions and not just take what

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we want and expect nothing to happen.

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' Cause the ocean doesn't collapse
when the big animals disappear.

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It collapses when the
small invisible ones do.

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And that's what we're starting to
see, and we don't want this to happen.

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So with that said, if you see sea
cucumber on the menu, make sure it's

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sustainable, make sure it's monitored.

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Very difficult to do.

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Hopefully, we can get to that
one day because we know seafood

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monitoring is a very difficult.

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But in the meantime, pay attention,
stay updated, and keep listening to

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And I want to thank you so much for
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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time
and happy conservation.