The Army on Thursday (04) took into custody two persons who were illegally transporting 2,500 baby sea cucumbers, 800 baby turtles, and a number of cirripedes in a lorry to Colombo from Mannar. Mannar-based fisheries officials said the value of the sea creatures was about 25 million rupees.
Fisheries officials said that in recent times, sea cucumbers, illegally harvested by Indian fishers and processed sea cucumbers from South India, were transferred to Sri Lankan fishing boats.
These sea cucumbers are then transported to Colombo for export. In 2001, India prohibited the harvesting of all sea cucumber varieties and granted them protected status under the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972. Sri Lanka follows a different approach, where sea cucumber harvesting is allowed under a licensing system.