1 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
NOAA 
Fishery Bulletin 
«%• established in 1881 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U S Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Estimation of growth parameters for the exploited 
sea cucumber Holothuria arguinensis from South 
Portugal 
Julian Olaya-Restrepo 1 ' 2 
Karim Erzini 1 
Mercedes Gonzalez-Wangiiemert (contact author ) 1 
Email address for contact author: mwanguemert@ualg.pt 
Abstract —Understanding how spe¬ 
cies grow is critical for choosing 
appropriate fisheries management 
strategies. Sea cucumbers shrink 
during periods of aestivation and 
have naturally flaccid bodies that 
make measuring growth difficult. 
In this study, we obtained length- 
frequency data on Holothuria ar¬ 
guinensis, measuring undisturbed 
animals in situ, because it is one 
of the new target species of the NE 
Atlantic and Southwestern Mediter¬ 
ranean fisheries. Growth param¬ 
eters were estimated for individuals 
inhabiting the Ria Formosa lagoon 
(Portugal). Length-frequency data 
were collected between November 
2012 and March 2014 by using a vi¬ 
sual census augmented with random 
sampling in 2014. To estimate the 
asymptotic length (LJ and growth 
coefficient (K), 2 different growth 
models were fitted to the length fre¬ 
quency data for 1198 sea cucumbers: 
the nonseasonal von Bertalanffy and 
Hoenig seasonal von Bertalanffy 
models. A L„ of 69.9 cm and K of 
0.88 were estimated by using the 
Hoenig function for seasonal growth. 
The value of 1.0 obtained for the pa¬ 
rameter C of this function indicates 
reduction in growth during winter. 
The relatively high growth rate (K) 
of this species may have important 
implications for its survival, mainly 
in environments where conditions 
cause biological stress and oceanic 
disturbances but may also increase 
its potential as a candidate for 
aquaculture. 
Manuscript submitted 18 January 2017. 
Manuscript accepted 21 September 2017. 
Fish. Bull. 116:1-8 (2018). 
Online publication date: 10 October 2017. 
doi: 10.7755/FB.116.1.1 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
1 Centro de Ciencias do Mar 
Universidade do Algarve 
Campus de Gambelas 
8005-139 Faro, Portugal 
2 Departamento de Zoologia 
Setor de Ciencias Biologicas 
Universidade Federal do Parana 
Avenida Coronel Francisco H dos Santos, 100 
19020 Curitiba, Brazil 
The economic value of sea cucum¬ 
bers is well known and at least 
66 species have been harvested in 
more than 70 countries (Purcell et 
ah, 2012), but these fisheries usu¬ 
ally follow a boom and bust pattern 
(Eriksson et ah, 2012; Purcell et ah, 
2013; Gonzalez-Wangiiemert et ah, 
2014; Gonzalez-Wangiiemert et ah, 
2015) . The rapid expansion of sea 
cucumber fisheries over the past 
several decades has overshadowed 
efforts to implement effective man¬ 
agement, leading to overexploitation 
of sea cucumbers by the majority of 
fisheries worldwide (Purcell et ah, 
2013; Gonzalez-Wangiiemert et ah, 
2016) . This inadequate management 
is primarily due to insufficient bio¬ 
logical and ecological knowledge of 
target species (Lovatelli et al., 2004; 
Purcell, 2010). Knowledge of growth 
parameters not only is essential for 
conservation and management of a 
target species but also for reducing 
fishing pressure on wild populations. 
One common fisheries management 
measure, for example, has been the 
implementation of a minimum size at 
capture, which is species-specific and 
often based on size at first maturity 
(Bruckner, 2006; Purcell, 2010). This 
management measure is important 
because of its applicability in the 
field, and together with information 
on the time to reach maturity, can be 
used to implement seasonal closures, 
as well as be used in guidelines for 
rebuilding hatchery stocks. 
Estimation of growth rates of sea 
cucumbers is difficult because of their 
ability to shrink (negative growth), 
their flaccid body, and their propen¬ 
sity to shed physical tags (Conand, 
1983; Uthicke et al., 2004; Purcell 
et ah, 2008). Until recently, external 
tagging methods have been unsuit¬ 
able for estimating growth owing to 
biological factors such as eviscera¬ 
tion, necrosis, skin sloughing, chang¬ 
es in sea cucumber behavior, and 
even increases in natural mortality 
and predation rates (Conand, 1991; 
Purcell et ah, 2006). The use of pas¬ 
sive inductive transponder (PIT) tags 
in sea cucumbers is also problematic 
because of the different results ob¬ 
tained with different sea cucumber 
