The biomass and density of sea cucumber, Holothuria atra, in Hadhramout coast, Gulf of Aden

Abstract EN

This survey was carried out to evaluate the biomas s, density and length of sea cucumber, Holothurian atra in Hadhramout coast, Gulf of Aden.

Four coastal stations were surveyed in this study including Jalkhah, Burum, Khelf and Shurmah.

The surveys were undertaken along the four seasons of the year 2012, during which a triplicate of a 50 m transect line in long and 5m in width was set horizontal to the shoreline.

Consequently, all sea cucumbers found inside the 750 m2 (15mx50 m) were collected and tested.

The results showed that there were significant differences (P≤0.05) regarding the biomass and density of sea cucumber in the four stations.

Also, there was significant difference regarding the length of a sea cucumber between Sharmuh station and other stations, whereas no significant difference between Jalkhah , Burum and Kkalf stations.

The low biomass of sea cucumber was 13.17g/m2 in the Khalf station, whereas the highest biomass was 55.15 g/m2 in the Shurmah station.

Besides, there were significant differences between the biomass of sea cucumber at summer, spring, autumn and winter while no significant differences were found pertaining to the length of sea cucumber and the organic matter of sediment for all the surveyed stations.

From these results, we conclude that the quantity of biomass of sea cucumbers is low.

Therefore, the protection of this animal is essential to save the marine ecosystem as well as further studies are needed to understand the ecology of sea cucumber in this area.