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Editorial

I would like to thank here, in this 27th issue of the Beche-de-Mer Bulletin,
the many regular and new contributors who share their fieldwork and research findings with us in the pages of this bulletin. I would also like to thank the dedicated staff of SPC’s Fisheries Information and Publication sections, who maintain this high quality publication.

Once again, I would like to draw your attention to the database of all articles and abstracts published in the bulletin to date. This was put together by SPC’s Fisheries Information Section, and is available on SPC’s website at: Digital library. The database includes around 600 article and abstract titles that can be searched by title, author name(s), scientific name, region or country. Each search result is presented with a hyperlink that allows downloading in PDF format.

This issue begins with information on the international workshop (organised by FAO and the Charles Darwin Institute) held in the Galapagos Islands last November, and some of the activities that followed. Following this is an article that analyses the usefulness of underwater identification cards, and shows that they are useful to several user groups and can lead to improved fisheries management.

There are several articles from the Indian Ocean region, including one on the sea cucumber fishery in Eritrea, sea cucumber species and prices in Mozambique, and sea cucumber distribution and abundance in the Maldives. And from the Pacific Islands region, we have an article about the SPC Reef Fisheries Observatory’s sea cucumber dataset.

Other contributions cover the characteristics of specific sea cucumber species, such as the taxonomy of Synaptula hydriformis, the distribution of Thelenota rubralineata, the feeding activity of Holothuria scabra, and the asexual reproduction of Holothuria hilla in Australia and Reunion Island.

We received several observations on the natural spawning of four sea cucumber species from different regions. These observation notes are more detailed than in previous bulletins, and provide a clear picture of the seasonal reproductive cycle of different species not yet studied in detail.

As usual, this and all previous issues of the bulletin are available in PDF format on SPC’s website at: http://coastfish.spc.int/. Please note that the SPC Fisheries Digital Library is now available on SPC’s website (http://www.spc.int/DigitalLibrary). The digital library gives access to electronic versions (in PDF format) of more than 5700 fisheries and aquaculture- related documents (in English and French), produced by, for, or in collaboration with SPC. This digital library is full text searchable.

Chantal Conand

Contents

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Beche de Mer #27 (pdf: )