Samcheok City Releases 300,000 Juvenile Spiny Sea Cucumbers Free of Charge

Samcheok City in Gangwon Province released 300,000 juvenile spiny sea cucumbers into the village waters of the Imwon Fishery Cooperative in Wondeok-eup free of charge on April 6 in order to expand the resources of coastal spiny sea cucumbers within its jurisdiction.

Samcheok City released 300,000 juvenile Stichopus horrens free of charge into the village waters of Imwon Fishing Cooperative in Wondeok-eup on the 6th to expand the stock of coastal Stichopus horrens in the area. Photo by Samcheok City

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The sea cucumbers released this time are healthy individuals weighing over 1 gram, bred for about 10 months after being spawned from high-quality broodstock secured by the Samcheok City Fisheries Resource Center in June 2025. These juveniles are expected to grow into marketable sea cucumbers about 18 months to 2 years after release, significantly contributing to both the increase of coastal sea cucumber resources in the area and the income growth of local fishers.

From 2017 to 2024, the Fisheries Resource Center has released a total of 4.5 million juvenile spiny sea cucumbers free of charge into the village waters of local fishing communities. Of the juvenile sea cucumbers produced in 2025, the first batch of 100,000 was released into the Daejin Fishery Cooperative in December last year, and with the addition of the current release of 300,000, a total of 400,000 juvenile sea cucumbers produced in 2025 have been released.

In parallel, the center is also accelerating research on the growth and attraction effects of sea cucumbers by dropping sea cucumber feed developed from seaweed left on the East Coast shoreline into the village fishing grounds. At the same time, efforts are underway to develop technologies for the mass production of juvenile octopus and for securing their feed sources.

Samcheok City released 300,000 juvenile prickly sea cucumbers free of charge into the village waters of Imwon Fishing Cooperative in Wondeok-eup on the 6th to expand the resource quantity of coastal prickly sea cucumbers within the jurisdiction. Photo by Samcheok City

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Park Jaeho, Director of the Fisheries Resource Center, said, "We will continue to do our utmost to mass-produce and release spiny sea cucumber juveniles in order to increase the resources along the Samcheok coastal area. In addition to ongoing monitoring to improve the survival rate of the juveniles released this time, we will also make every effort in research to develop income-generating species for local fishers, such as the common octopus."

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