High season for sea cucumber harvesting in Liaoning

DALIAN, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- At dawn, Lyu Dapeng skillfully put on a diving suit, carried an oxygen tank and jumped into the sea to start his work searching for sea cucumbers on the seabed at an aquaculture farm at Wangjia Island, northeast China's Liaoning Province.

"This year's climate is suitable for sea cucumber growing. It is a bumper year," said the 36-year-old diver as he picked up a sea cucumber with a plump body and big thorns.

Lyu fished out more than 50 kg of sea cucumbers in a half-day of work. He said divers earned 16 yuan (about 2.2 U.S. dollars) for a kilo of cucumber. Lyu can earn more than 800 yuan a day.

The sea cucumber cultivation boomlet has brought wealth to locals in this coastal area. Sea cucumbers can grow big in the cold water in the northern part of the Yellow Sea. Sea cucumbers in this area live at a depth of 20 meters and are harvested every spring and autumn.

Sea cucumbers are considered nutritious food and are made into pricey delicacies valued in Chinese cuisine, and thus have high economic value.

Sea cucumbers brought ashore are immediately taken to factories for processing to keep them fresh or for them to be dried.

Zhuanghe City, which administrates Wangjia Island, is aiming to become a "blue grain barn" through the development of marine aquaculture. Located on the Liaodong Peninsula, it enjoys a sound ecological environment.

The city's fishery and aquaculture area reached 838,000 mu (55,867 hectares) in 2021, when the total output of aquatic products amounted to 573,400 tonnes, with an output value of 10.23 billion yuan.

Currently, the sea cucumber harvest is about to peak in Zhuanghe. From there, boxes of packed sea cucumbers are sold nationwide to enrich people's dining tables.