Among the 1100 species of sea cucumbers in the world, the Japanese
common sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus (Selenka,1867) is the
most valuable species in many parts of Asia due to its high meat quality
for traditional food and purported medicinal properties, resulting in a
high global demand and extensive world trade (Huiling et al., 2004).
The increasing demand for sea cucumber, however, has resulted in
overfishing and also in development of methods for aquaculture as
well as for stock enhancement in Asia (Chen, 2004; Ito, 1995). In China,
most sea cucumbers are cultured in intertidal ponds that often receive