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Development strategies for the sea cucumber industry in China

  • Aquaculture and Fisheries
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Abstract

The sea cucumber, Apostichopus japonicus, is an important marine aquaculture species in China. After nearly thirty years of development, the production of A. japonicus has become commercially lucrative and successful. In this report, current advances in sea cucumber industry are addressed in terms of the basic biology, culturing methods, and health care benefits. Next, the challenges restricting development of the sea cucumber industry are discussed, including weaknesses in the basic biological research, the problem of germplasm degradation, environmental stress caused by global climate change, and food safety problems. Finally, several strategies are presented that might contribute to sustainable development of the sea cucumber industry. These strategies include advances in genome studies, behavioral studies, selective breeding, ecological culture technologies, reforms in food safety management, and the development of health care functions based on contemporary medical practices. Thus, our work provides new insights into how to explore the sustainable development of the sea cucumber industry in the future.

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Acknowledgement

We are grateful to XU Qinzeng, JIANG Lingxu, ZHANG Chuantao, LI Jiao, QIU Tianlong and YANG Jianmin for their providing the photographs. And we are also grateful to WU Yi for her excellent work in image editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Xiaoshang Ru, Libin Zhang, Xiaoni Li, Shilin Liu & Hongsheng Yang

  2. Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Libin Zhang, Shilin Liu & Hongsheng Yang

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xiaoshang Ru & Xiaoni Li

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  1. Xiaoshang Ru
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  2. Libin Zhang
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  3. Xiaoni Li
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  4. Shilin Liu
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  5. Hongsheng Yang
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Correspondence to Libin Zhang or Hongsheng Yang.

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Supported by the Agricultural Seed Project of Shandong Province, the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDA11020703), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41676136, 41606171), the Nature Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2016CQ04), and the Taishan Scholars Program (Distinguished Taishan Scholars)

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Ru, X., Zhang, L., Li, X. et al. Development strategies for the sea cucumber industry in China. J. Ocean. Limnol. 37, 300–312 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-019-7344-5

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