News
Illegal Fishing Nets Confiscated During Fisheries and Police Outreach in Remote Nukumanu Atoll
Wednesday, 13 Aug, 2025
On the 7th of August 2025, officers with the Bougainville Fisheries Directorate and the Bougainville Police Service confiscated illegal dragging nets in Nukumanu Atoll, a remote group of islets located 300 nautical miles from Buka, the capital of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. The operation followed meetings with village elders and community leaders to work together to address the long-term conservation impacts of removing sea cucumbers from surrounding coral reefs, vital habitats that support local livelihoods.
Sea cucumbers, also known as beche-de-mer, are echinoderms, marine invertebrates closely related to sea urchins and starfish. Often called, “vacuum cleaners of the sea”, they play a key role in coral reef health by feeding on organic matter in sediment and excreting clean sand. This process lowers marine alkalinity, directly helping to counteract ocean acidification.
The confiscations were prompted by intelligence reports that buyers from the People’s Republic of China, operating out of neighboring Solomon Islands, exploit lack of employment opportunities in the outer islands and atolls of Bougainville. These buyers allegedly provide local fishers with prohibited fishing gear and fuel in a bid to bypass a ban on sea cucumber fishing that has been in place since 2020.
Dragging nets are particularly destructive because they’re dragged across the seabed by boat, allowing fishers to capture hundreds of times more sea cucumbers than traditional free diving would yield.
Last year, the Honorable Pais Taihu, the elected Member for Atolls, raised concerns in the Bougainville Parliament about an increase in sea cucumber poaching in the remote islands and atolls of Bougainville, and the threat that it poses to ecosystem health. But the inaccessibility of the atolls made further investigation impossible, until the arrival of the Sea Shepherd Global vessel Allankay in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville last month (read more here). The vessel has since transported government representatives to the Nukumanu Atoll, also known as one of “the sinking islands” due to rising sea levels from climate change.
After engaging in conversations with the community about co-managed conservation and the desire to work alongside islanders for environmental stewardship, Autonomous Bougainville Government representatives confiscated five illegal nets as evidence, warning community leaders that future violations could result in arrests and prosecution.
On the black market, one kilogram of dried sea cucumbers can fetch up to $3,000 USD. Demand from transnational organized crime networks has driven sea cucumber populations around the Autonomous Region of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea down to 1 – 5% of their natural abundance, triggering the national ban on sea cucumber fishing.