Abstract

The sea cucumber fishery in the state of Yucatán, México, started in 2006 with a few fishermen in order to evaluate its impact. Nevertheless, the dried sea cucumber processing is very rudimentary. A sample of 35 organisms was taken, mean initial total weight was 434.6g (s =1 56.7). After cleaning a loss of 28% was registered, the sea cucumbers were boiled in 50 l of tap water around 2 h in a metallic container using 50 kg of non-sorted by size, a 15.3% from de initial weight was registered, with a moisture content of 84.7%. After cooking, the sea cucumber are placed in salt beds to reduce the free water in the tissues and kill micro-organism during 48 h, a loss of 87.7% from initial total weight was observed with a moisture content of 57.5%, then they are washed, rinsed and reboiled in tap water for 30 min, reaching a 8.72% from the initial weight and moisture content of 46.1%. Finally, the sea cucumbers are place on the ground and sun dry for 16 days, to achieve a final moisture content of 5% and a loss of 91.2% from the initial total weight.

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