Latest bust in the long-running sea cucumber racket of organized crime.

For years now, organized crime groups in Japan have been pilfering sea cucumbers from the ocean. Due to the fact that they’re relatively easy to catch and can fetch decent prices as a delicacy or ingredient in cosmetics and holistic medicine in Japan or elsewhere in Asia, sea cucumbers are a prime target for gang members, who may lack the fishing skills of other marine poachers.

In the most recent incident, a group of eight men in their 20s to 40s were arrested after being caught slimy-handed with 485.5 kilograms (1,070 pounds) of the echinoderms, roughly the weight of a grand piano.

Coast Guard officers patrolling the waters off the coast of Momonai in Otaru, Hokkaido Prefecture, spotted a small rubber boat without any lights at around 9 p.m. and monitored the situation. They saw the boat land in the nearby town of Yoichi and confronted the boat’s three-person crew.

There, they saw from the men’s equipment that they were likely involved in sea cucumber poaching and arrested them on the spot. The trio attempted to flee by running into the ocean at one point, but the Coast Guard managed to persuade them not to.

In the end, a total of eight men were arrested, with some allegedly acting as lookouts on the shore. They are currently in custody, but the police haven’t disclosed whether any of them admitted their crimes or not, as the interrogation of each man is still ongoing. However, the assumed ringleader of the poachers has referred to himself as a member of organized crime.

Yakuza members have been caught with bigger hauls of illicit sea cucumbers in the past, but this bust of about half a ton of them still wowed readers of the news online.

“They got too greedy.”
“Is there that much demand for sea cucumbers?”
“I wonder what the police do with all those sea cucumbers. Eat them?”
“They’re a luxury ingredient in China.”
“Why don’t they just become normal fishermen? There’s money in that.”
“I feel like ‘poaching’ implies some sort of skill. Picking up sea cucumbers is just stealing.”
“They’re not really all that good to eat either.”
“Is all this really worth it?”

What sea cucumbers lack in pound-for-pound sticker price, they more than make up for in ease of smuggling compared to other contraband like drugs or weapons. However, as the problems persist, stricter regulations on the shipping of sea cucumber products are being developed, and in 2020, heightened penalties for sea cucumber poaching were enacted.

Also, this is just purely my speculation, but I think sea cucumber duty in Hokkaido is a good way to keep problematic yakuza members busy and out of the way of more important business, like the old joke of the U.S. military threatening to ship people who screw up off to a radar station in Alaska.

Source: STV News NNN, Itai News, Fisheries Agency
Featured image: ©SoraNews24
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