New sea cucumber rules take effect today

New commercial daily trip and vessel limits for sea cucumbers take effect today in state and federal waters off Florida.

The commercial daily trip and vessel limit is now set at 200 sea cucumbers.

The change was requested by the existing commercial fishery as a proactive conservation measure.

While there is currently a small commercial fishery for sea cucumbers in Florida, primarily for the live aquarium trade, sea cucumbers have been commonly targeted elsewhere in the world as a food product due to their high value in Asian markets.

The unregulated development of sea cucumber export fisheries in other area has led to fishery collapses and sea cucumber depletions.

Sea cucumbers are vulnerable to overfishing due to their sedentary nature, which makes them easy to locate and collect.

They also need a dense population in order to successfully reproduce.




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