The great event in sea cucumber research and development this year was the workshop on Advances in Sea Cucumber Aquaculture and Management (ASCAM) held Dalian, Liaoning Province, China. Organised by the Fishery Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and held from 14—18 October, the workshop gathered experts from all over the world. Abstracts and some information on the workshop and the visit to two sea cucumber hatcheries are presented on page 4. Workshop proceedings will be published in early 2004 by FAO as: A. Lovatelli, C. Conand, S. Purcell, S. Uthicke, J.-F. Hamel and A. Mercier (eds). Advances in sea cucumber aquaculture and management.

In this issue, we also present several original articles:

J. Graham and S. Battaglene present observations on periodic movement and sheltering behaviour of Actinopyga mauritiana in Solomon Islands (page 23).

In Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia, S. Lindsay and S. Abraham conducted a resource evaluation of the populations of two commercially harvested sea cucumber species, Actinopyga mauritiana and Stichopus chloronotus (page 31). On Jaluit Atoll, Marshall Islands, J. Bungitak and S. Lindsay conducted a marine resource survey and assessment. The article on page 33 provides the data collected on the commercially targeted holothurians.

The first data on the sea cucumber fishery in Mayotte, Indian Ocean, is presented by A. Pouget on page 35.

R. Pitt has left Vietnam, but uses data collected there to present, with his colleague Dinh Quang Duy, length—weight relationships for sandfish (Holothuria scabra) (page 39)

Following the questionnaires on spawning observations and fission, still occuring, we set up a new questionnaire on juvenile occurrence. The information gathered will add to the knowledge on this obscure life cycle phase of most holothurian species (page 41).

You will also find our regular features on abstracts, publications and meetings. The 11th International Echinoderm Conference was held at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany, from 6—10 October 2003. The abstracts of the oral presentations and posters on holothurians (page 43) are included in this issue and the articles are being referred for publication. More information is available at: www.iec2003.uni-muenchen.de.

Previous issues of this bulletin are available online, in English and French at: http://www.spc.org.nc/coastfish.

The last issue of the Bulletin of the Echinoderms Newsletter is available online at: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/iz/echinoderm

Chantal Conand

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