Proceedings of the 39th CIESM Congress-Venice, May 10-14, 2010 , Italy -.

Observations on the Abundance of Holothurian Species

Along the Alexandria Coast, Egypt

F.A. Abdel Razek1*, M.H. Mona2, S.H. Abdel Rahman1, M.M. El

Gamal2, R.M. Moussa1 and S.M. Taha1
1
National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (NIOF), Egypt-
fatma_abdelrazek@hotmail.com
2
Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University

Key words: Holothuria, abundance, size distribution, morphometry.

Introduction
Sea cucumbers have a great ecological importance in marine communities.
Mediterranean holothurian fishery has been targeted with special regards to
Holothuria arenicola as being the most abundant holothurian species.
The over exploitation and fishing pressure is clearly observed on H. arenicola
and the size at capture marked by decreased in the last ten years.
Over harvesting is a worldwide phenomenon and recovery of depleted
populations is slow and sporadic (kincli, 2002).
Recovery of over fished sea cucumber stocks in a lengthy process and taking
serial years. Additionally, breeding and recruitment success of sea cucumber become
low when population density is reduced below a critical level.
In Egypt, small – scale sea cucumber fishery began in 1998 on the southern
part of Red Sea Coast. By 2000, its fishery in Egypt had in creased greatly to be 20
tonnes and reach to 2310 tonnes in 2002, then dramatically decreased to 6 in 2006
(Ahmed, 2006).
Mediterranean holothurian fishery has been targeted with special regards
Holothuria arenicola as being the most abundant holothurian species. The over
exploitation and fishing pressure is clearly observed on H. arenicola and the size at
capture markedly decreased in the last five years.

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 The present study has been conducted on the abundance of the most over
fished holothurian species along the Alexandria coast of Egyptian Mediterranean
waters.

Materials and Methods:

a – Field sampling:
2015 Samples of sea cucumber were collected randomly during the period
from January 2005 to July 2007 along the Alexandria coast of Egypt as described in
Fig (1) using quadrate transect (20 m X 10 m) through diving at depth ranged from 2
to 3 meter and counting the number of each holothurian species per 200 m2.

Figure 1. Map of studied stations along the Alexandrian coast of Egypt.

b – Laboratory analysis:
Species composition and their morphmetric characteristics were anaesthetized
in a magnesium chloride (2.5%) solution to overcome the error resulted from
contraction and relaxation of body muscles (Sewell, 1992).
The total length (TL), total wet weight (Tw) was measured for each species.

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Results and discussion:
1 – Species composition:
Figure 2 a&b shows that only two holothurian species were present along the
Alexandria coast and can easily distinguish externally.
H. arenicola is characterized with flecks of darker brown, black, or rust color,
which Bohodshia argus is covered with many small brown spots marking with a spot
in the middle that resembles an eye.
Table (1): describes the occurrence percentage and size ranges of H. arenicola
and B. argus in studied sites.
H. arenicola was the dominant species with a percentage of 98% and was
observed to have aggregated distribution pattern especially in Abu – kir, El – Muntaza
and Miyami sites.
This may be due to being shallow water enriching with different macro and
microalgae, low wave action and stability of ecosystem. This is in agreement with
findings of Hammoud (1983) and Uthicke and Karez (1999).

Figure 2: a- Holothuria arenicola b- Bohadshia argus

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 Table (1): Density, occurrence percentage and size range Holothuria arenicola and
Bohadshia argus in seven studied stations along the Alexandrian coast of Egypt.

Station No. of collected Species Occurrence Size Range

samples (%) (cm)
I 370 H. arenicola 97 5-21
B. argus 3 15-18
II 161 H. arenicola 95 5-16.8
B. argus 5 16-20
III 430 H. arenicola 100 6-19
IV 330 H. arenicola 100 5-15
V 270 H. arenicola 100 5-18
VI 160 H. arenicola 100 6-16
VII 90 H. arenicola 100 5-14

2- Population morphometric characteristics:

a – Length frequency distribution:
About 2015 samples of H. arenicola were collected and sub samples was
observed as 103 males and 102 females and measured which represented the different
studied stations as in Figure 3.

20

15
Frequency

10

0
7.5

8.5

9.5

10.5

11.5

12.5

13.5

14.5

15.5

16.5

T.L.Clas s

Male Female

Figure 3: Length Frequency distribution of male and female Holothuria

arenicola

The length frequency of both sexes was unimodal and these was of a
significant difference between males and females in size distribution.
Seasonal length frequency distribution for the combined sexes of H. arenicola
as in Figure 4. The large specimens were rarely encountered a year around since the
categories of larger lengths 14.5, 15.5 and 16.5 cm had the lowest frequencies.

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 Frequency
Frequency Frequency Frequency

0
10
20
30
40
50

0
10
20
30
40
50

0
10
20
30
40
50
0
10
20
30
40
50
5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5

6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5

7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5

8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5

9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5

10.5 10.5 10.5 10.5

11.5 11.5 11.5 11.5

Tl Clas s

TL Clas s
TL Clas s
TL CLas s
12.5 12.5 12.5 12.5

13.5 13.5 13.5 13.5

14.5 14.5 14.5 14.5
15.5 15.5 Summer 15.5 15.5
Spring

Autumn
Winter

16.5 16.5 16.5 16.5

17.5 17.5 17.5 17.5

Figure 4: Seasonal length frequency distribution of Holothuria arenicola

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 It is observed that in comparison with average sizes, animals caught by Raouf
et al, (2000), the size become much smaller as the larger animals are taken first
especially since the trade is not regulated. This decrease of H. arenicola sizes reflects
the intensive fishing activity in the last years which supports the necessity of rapid
management.
On the other side, the seasonal variation of length distribution of H. arenicola
showed that young individuals were observed in winter and autumn which may be
attributed to the fact that the fishing activity in summer and spring is higher than that
in autumn and winter. Also higher fishing selectivity during the active fishing season
with the large size, can be another reason.
Absence of H. arenicola juveniles in the study area as observed, reported by
James according its burring behavior in sand along with adults (Shiell, 2005). Secto
(1994) reported that juvenile sea cucmbers were rarely encountered in the field and
have the potential to be misidentified given their potential for morphological
difference relative to the adult forms. Further migration and hance greater habitat
separation between juveniles and adults of some species may occur as holothurians
mature (Hamel and Mercier, 1996 b). Larger sea cucumber inhabit deeper water
because of bottom materials composition as sea mud which contains more organic
carbons and organic nitrogen.

b- Length-weight relationship
The relationship between length and weight is of great importance for biology
and fisheries managements.
Table (2) showed that there is a significant difference between observed and
calculated weight in both sexes in the length-weight relationship and the regression
coefficient value in the relation is less than 3. This may be due the cylindrical shape
of the animal (Conand, 1989) and it means also that length dose not grow at the same
rate of the weight.

Table 2: Regression equation of weight relationship of male and female Holothuria

arenicola.
Sex Regression Equation R2 n
Male W=7.4107L0.8473 0.9484 103
Female W=47.9351L0.8372 0.8572 102

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 It is clear and more confirmed from the previous results that H. arenicola in
Mediterranean Sea is exposed to overfishing the last ten years as a result of drastic
increase in demand for sea cucumber as beche-de-mer.
The problem of overfishing can be overcome through firm and conservative
management. Possible management measure include minimum size limits and
restrictions on harvesting (Preston, 1993 and Conand, 1997). Fisheries biology
information also could lead to the development of better management programs as
well as aquaculture of this valuable resources.

c- Sex ratio
The sexes in H. arenicola are separate but it is not easly distinguished
externally, only gonad color with a microscopic examination must be used. Figure 5
describes the ratio of both sexes it was 37.1 for females, 42.3% for males and 27.5%
for individuals laking gonad. These unsexed specimens were encountered in
December and January. The sex-ratio was significantly different from 1 : 1 using chi-
square test.

100
Percentage of sex

80

60
(%)

40

20

0
Jul
Feb
Jan

Jun

Oct
Mar

May

Nov
Dec
Sep
Aug
Apr

Month
Male Female Unsexed

Figure 5. Monthly sex ratio of Holothuria arenicola

It is concluded that male population of H. arenicola is the dominant and

similar result was previously reported in many holothurian species, H. atra in
Caledonia (Conand, 1993a) and Omar, 2006 in Red Sea. The dominance of males in
the present species as well as the other holothurian species may be due to high female
mortality during recruitment or differential dispersal ability according to sex (Uthicke
et al., 1999). On the other hand, both sexes in Actinopyga mauritiana are more or less

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equal in proportion with a ratio 1 : 1 according to Howaida et al, 2004 in Red Sea
population.

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