Sea cucumbers and sea horses are considered a delicacy in China. Many Chinese aquaculturists farm sea cucumber in large quantities to serve this growing demand. However the wild caught variety fetch more money and is preferred at high end restaurants.

Most of the Mediterranean countries have banned the fishing of sea cucumber and sea horse. Over fishing and negligence has caused excessive damage to the sea floor rendering it anorexic thereby causing widespread damage to marine habitat. The ban however does not seem to deter smugglers from illegally fishing these species of fish.

Very recently a gang illegally catching sea cucumber and sea horses off the Italian coast for the Chinese market were tracked and prosecuted with the help of the social media app WeChat. They could trace chain of messages that led to nabbing the culprits whose details came up in the name cards with Wechat contact details within the packaging used by the gang to ship their catch back to China.

It is quite unfortunate that environmental damages of this nature and extent are being caused by people with any concern or regret. Despite the efforts of authorities to curb such activities, a true and real change is perhaps possible only with awareness and initiative from the people themselves.