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It is a great pleasure to present the 22nd issue of the SPC Beche-de- Mer Information Bulletin, which is particularly rich and diverse.

I draw your attention to the new database of all articles and abstract published in the Bulletin to date. This was recently put togethe by SPC’s Fisheries Information Section, and is available on SPC’s website at: http://www.spc.int/coastfish/news/search_bdm.asp. The database includes close to 560 article and abstract titles that can be searched by title, author’s name(s), scientific name, region or country. Each search result is presented with a hyperlink that allows downloading in pdf format. Your comments and suggestions on how to improve this useful tool are most welcome.

This issue of the Bulletin includes articles focusing on many different areas; in some cases, this is the first time research from these locales has appeared in the Bulletin (e.g. the Comoros, featured in the article by Samyn et al.; Mauritius, addressed by Laxminarayana; and Sri Lanka, addressed by Terney). These articles highlight the current interest in sea cucumbers in the western Indian Ocean. Contributions about Madagascar by Rasolofonirina and Jangoux and Mayotte by Conand et al. also serve to illustrate the progress in sea cucumber research in this region.

Identification of sea cucumber species is difficult. With CITES’ conservation concerns, the issue of identifying processed specimens has become critical. One identification method involves special preparation of the body wall to examine the calcareous spicules. This method has been used in the Galapagos for Isostichopus fuscus (see article by Toral).

Purcell presents advances from the important WorldFish Center, which is developing technologies for sandfish restocking.

We continue to publish articles on asexual reproduction by fissiparity. Purwati presents her recent findings with Holothuria atra and H. leucospilota and Kohtsuka et al. write about their observation of a Stichopus horrens specimen undergoing fission.

For this issue, we have not received answers to the different questionnaires presented in previous issues of the Bulletin, but we hope to receive your contributions for the next issue on the following important fishery-related subjects: overexploitation, sexual reproduction, recruitment and juvenile observations in the wild.

Proceedings of the 11th International Echinoderm Conference are now published as: Proceedings of the 11th International Echinoderm Conference, Munich, Germany, October 6–10, 2003: Heinzeller, T. and Nebelsick, J.H. (eds), Taylor and Francis Group, London, 633 p. You can order this publication through Taylor and Francis website (http://www.tandf.co.uk/books/, click on “Catalogue” in the menu on the left side and enter Echinoderms Munchen in the search box). Several abstracts of published papers are included in the Abstracts and New Publications section of this Bulletin.

The location of the 2006 International Echinoderm Conference has not yet been decided. We hope to be able to give this information in the next issue of the Bulletin.

All previous issues of the Bulletin are available from SPC’s website at: http://www.spc.org.nc/coastfish/news/bdm/bdm.htm (English and French versions)

The latest issue of the “Echinoderm Newsletter” is available at: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/iz/echinoderm. And, as usual, you can access the Echinoderm Portal from: http://www.nrm.se/ev/echinoderms/echinoportal.html.en

Chantal Conand

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