Sandfish, or Holothuria scabra, is one of the most threatened tropical sea cucumbers because of its high price, reaching up to $1,600 per kilogram (approximately P80,800) when processed and dried into trepang or beche-de-mer which are used in exotic Asian cuisine and medicinal products. Thankfully, sandfish is among the easiest to propagate of the tropical sea cucumbers because of established hatchery production techniques; thus, providing hope to alleviate the threat to their numbers in the wild. Production of sandfish, from the hatchery to the farm, is being optimized at one of the leading institutions in sandfish research – the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center Aquaculture Department (SEAFDEC/AQD) based in Tigbauan, Iloilo.

Ledesma, R. (2020, May 29). Sandfish: expensive, endangered, and ecologically essential. Daily Guardian, pp. 6, 8.