Australian sea cucumber study raises sustainability risks for black teatfish fishery

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Black teatfish study risks

Highlights

A new iScience genetic study finds black teatfish can live up to 100 years, challenging previous fishery management assumptions of a five to 20-year lifespan.
Study results suggest sustainable catch levels may be much lower than assumed, increasing regulatory pressure after previous stock collapses and ongoing illegal fishing threats.
Black teatfish fishery holds significant economic value for Torres Strait Islanders, supporting exclusive access rights and an industry exceeding half a million dollars.

Longevity findings challenge harvest assumptions

As reported by ABC News, citing iScience, a new genetic study indicates black teatfish, or Holothuria whitmaei, can live up to 100 years, far beyond the previously assumed lifespan of five to 20 years in the wild.

Study lead author Sven Uthicke, a molecular ecologist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, says the result means fishery management may need to revisit whether current catch limits are sustainable. He says regulators are effectively assuming the animals are replaced about 10 times faster than they are likely to be, a factor that could mean sustainable catch levels for black teatfish and similar species are lower than previously thought.

Uthicke revisited a no-fishing zone near Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef 24 years after earlier fieldwork on black teatfish growth rates and found 31 of the 76 sea cucumbers recorded in 2000. He says some were likely more than 50 or 60 years old, and that individuals in the study showed almost no growth over the period, while no small animals were found.

Fishery oversight and regional economic stakes

The findings add to pressure on regulators as black teatfish stocks have previously collapsed on the Great Barrier Reef and in Zenadh Kes, or the Torres Strait, while illegal fishing is identified as a key factor in disappearances from remote Australian reefs.

Because black teatfish is considered globally endangered, Australia's federal environment department must approve any fishing regime involving the species. It is not taken in regulated sea cucumber fisheries in Western Australia or the Northern Territory, but it is caught in Queensland fisheries.

A Queensland Department of Primary Industries spokesperson says a recent stock assessment indicates black teatfish is being fished at sustainable levels and that future assessments will consider relevant new information. An Australian Fisheries Management Authority spokesperson says the new research will be considered in future management advice for the Torres Strait, adding that a past CSIRO survey in 2019-20 found the species had significantly recovered from historic overfishing and could be harvested under a strict strategy.

The species also carries economic importance for Torres Strait communities. The authority says black teatfish supports livelihoods and traditional ways of life in the region, where Torres Strait Islanders hold exclusive access rights to a fishery estimated to be worth more than half a million dollars to the local economy.

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