Bridging fishers’ and Western scientific knowledges to farm sea cucumbers in a community setting in Palau

Sea cucumbers are culturally and economically important in Palau, particularly for women in rural fishing communities. Yet across the nation, and the wider Pacific region, sea cucumber populations have declined as a result of overfishing and environmental change. In response to this decline, the Palauan government passed a nationwide ban on exporting sea cucumbers in 2012, and some communities have since restricted fishers’ access through formal protected areas and informal catch limits. However, both interviews with fishers and scientific monitoring reports indicate slow to no recovery outside of protected areas (e.g. Rehm et al. 2014). Due to their reproductive strategy, when sea cucumber densities are very low, better fisheries governance and regulatory measures alone may be incapable of restoring populations (Friedman et al. 2011). Thus, active restoration of the fishery through restocking may be necessary.