Beche-de-mer (cooked sea cucumbers) are a highly sought after delicacy, particularly in Asia, consisting of dried sea cucumbers that are gutted, boiled, salted and or smoked. Photo: Flickr/ John Turnbull
Three men in Tonga have been fined $7300 each after poaching nearly 30,000 sea cucumbers for commercial purposes during a fishing ban on the invertebrates.
Justice Petunia Tupou of the Supreme Court in Vava'u has given a Tongan man and two Chinese nationals six months to pay up or face six months in jail.
During sentencing on 21 November, Justice Tupou said parliament considered this type of offending extremely serious.
"The aggravating factor here is the total disregard for the moratorium in place and any consequential impact of the removal of that many sea cucumbers on its population or re-population," she said.
"Ignorance of the law excuses no-one."
Ivan Moreno, 35, Wang Zhin Ning, 37, and Yang Peng Chan, 35, pleaded guilty on 10 November to one count of unlawful possession of 13,574 beche-de-mer and a second count involving 14,754 sea cucumbers.
Beche-de-mer (cooked sea cucumbers) are a highly sought after delicacy, particularly in Asia, consisting of dried sea cucumbers that are gutted, boiled, salted and or smoked.
The echinoderms are mainly harvested from coral reefs and serve a useful role in the marine ecosystem as detritivores, feeding on dead organic material, especially plant debris.
A fisheries team went to Moreno's home in Talau on 14 February after after a tip off, according to a judgement from the court. At the time, there was a ban on the harvesting and processing of sea cucumbers to prevent over-fishing.
The team could hear stoves burning and could smell boiled sea cucumbers before they entered residence.
On entering, they saw bins loaded loaded with beche-de-mer and sea cucumbers on the ground floor, which Moreno admitted were his.
The police were called and Moreno was arrested, charged and remanded in custody.
Wang and Yang refused to co-operate with the police and were arrested, charged and held in custody the next day.
A pre-sentencing report on Moreno said he admitted he intended to export the beche-de-mer and sea cucumbers to China.
He had been working since 2020 at a Sam's restaurant in Neiafu earning between $370 and $740 a week, but owed his employer money.
A probation officer said he had prior convictions for minor offences was at high risk of re-offending.
Wang arrived in Tonga less than two weeks before being arrested, had his passport forteited but was planning to run the daily operations at Sam's restaurant.
Yang moved to Tonga in August 2024 and was working illegally at the restaurant until police and immigration officials inspected the property.
The Crown submitted that the fines should reflect the "substantial quantity" of sea cucumbers harvested and the disregard for the ban, put in place to safeguard sea cucumbers and their sustainability.
However in mitigation, the Crown said Moreno had plead guilty at the first opportunity and the other two were first time offenders.
Moreno's lawyer told the court that his client was unaware of the ban and had harvested the sea cucumbers at the request of others.
