Aquaculture

Hery Lova Razafimamonjiraibe – Blue Ventures National Technical Advisor for Livelihoods in Madagascar – led a webinar hosted by Reef Resilience Network about Madagascar’s community-based sea cucumber farms.  Hery, who is based in Antananarivo, has nearly a decade of experience in the community conservation space. He presented an overview of how Blue Ventures’ community-based aquaculture ...

In an article from The Fish Site exploring potential new avenues for the European Union’s (EU) aquaculture sector, Blue Ventures’ ten year experience farming sea cucumbers in Madagascar is referenced. While sea cucumber farming has not yet been developed in European waters, native sea cucumber species are listed amongst groupers, amberjack, mullets and seaweed, as ...

In Mongabay’s recent article, Chris Scarffe, explores the increasing global demand for sea cucumbers, which in turn, is making small-scale fishers in Madagascar resort to risking death and arrest to fish for wild sea cucumbers in the West Indian Ocean. In one of the world’s poorest countries, diving deeper and further into the ocean using ...

In a study recently published by the Reef Resilience Network, Hery Razafimamonjiraibe, Blue Ventures’ National Aquaculture Programme Lead in Madagascar, outlines our sea cucumber farming initiatives in Tampolove and Ambolimoke in southwest Madagascar, and discusses the successes and key lessons learned. In partnership with Indian Ocean Trepang (IOT) and The Royal Norwegian Society for Development ...

This article was first published as a commentary on Mongabay on April 22nd 2020 Impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on vulnerable communities in the Global South go far beyond the looming public health emergency.  The broader economic and environmental ramifications are of profound importance to biodiversity conservation. How the conservation movement responds will determine our relevance ...

Blue Ventures has been working in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) with coastal communities in Zanzibar to diversify their fishing and farming activities by providing training and technical support in sea cucumber aquaculture. A new article published by the FAO describes the impact of the sharing learning exchange ...

Tommy Trenchard, an award-winning British photojournalist, visited Tampolove, Madagascar, in 2018 to document the work of the local sea cucumber farmers. In much of the Far East, sea cucumbers are a delicacy, fetching a high price for their purported health benefits. In Tampolove, a tiny windswept village of huts and sandy paths squeezed between the ...

In low-income coastal states throughout the tropics, geographic isolation and limited livelihood opportunities can lead to an overwhelming dependence on fishing for survival. This dependence, in combination with the significant impacts of global heating and industrial fishing, has led to dwindling fish populations and increased vulnerability for the communities that rely on them. For the ...

Undercurrent news reported on the recent learning exchange in Unguja, Zanzibar, where Blue Ventures' aquaculture team was invited to share their experiences of community-based sea cucumber farming. Read the full story from Undercurrent news: Non-profit encouraging sea cucumber farming in Tanzania  

Blue Ventures has released a new Explore Photo Story with text by Ben Honey, and photos by Ben Honey, Louise Jasper, Anne Guillaume and Adrian Levrel. Every day in the remote coastal village of Antanimanimbo, people fish for crab in the mangroves. However, their isolation means that they struggle to make a living from fishing alone. ...