Proceedings of the National Workshop on Beche-De-Mer

Abstract

The term beche-de-mer simply means a sea-cucumber. The sea-cucumbers constitute an important marine living resources occurring in the seas around India. India at present is earning a foreign exchange of over one crore of rupees by exporting processed sea-cucumbers. In the seas around India, nearly 200 species of sea-cucumbers are known, of which about 75 are from the shallow waters within twenty metres depth. Of these a dozen species are of commercial value. Sea-cucumbers occur in plenty in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Lakshadweep. A small scale cottage industry exists in Tamil Nadu Coast for more than one thousand years