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For Ann Singeo, being in the ocean has always been a way of life. Growing up in Palau, she and her mother would gather on the shore with other women in their village. They would wade into the sea to talk, share food, and glean—hand-collecting marine animals to eat or sell. From the other women, Singeo learned about the biology and spawning cycles of sea cucumbers, which are commonly consumed in the country. “But it was really about enjoying nature and the connections with other women,” says Singeo, now a celebrated conservationist and Indigenous knowledge advocate. When she became a mother herself, Singeo brought her daughter to glean beside her in the turquoise shallows. |
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But in 2011, everything changed for Singeo and her fellow gleaners. Dried sea cucumber, or bêche-de-mer, is prized in Chinese cuisine and traditional medicine. In Hong Kong, top specimens can fetch an eye-watering US $1,800 per kilogram. In Palau, a ziploc sandwich bag of the animals costs just $3. So when buyers offering top dollar arrived that year from China, Korea, and Taiwan, it sparked a covert trade in sea cucumbers that soon exploded into a collecting frenzy. |
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