Editorial Unimagdalena

Description in English: Sea cucumbers are echinoderms that are related to starfish, sea urchins, and sea lilies. These animals play a recycling role in the marine ecosystem by removing the substrate and at the same time oxygenating it and have excellent nutritional and medicinal properties. They are known by Chinese culture as the ginseng of the sea. In Colombia they have been marketed for export purposes to Asian countries where a kilogram of dry product (beche de mer) of the Apostichopus japonicus species can cost up to 200 dollars. These animals are fished or farmed for global marketing. However, in our country little is known about these beautiful aquatic invertebrates and their production through aquaculture is just beginning to be developed. The MANUAL FOR THE CULTIVATION AND PROCESSING OF SEA CUCUMBER presents some of the advances achieved through the work of the Technological Research and Development Group in Aquaculture (GIDTA in Spanish). Much of the above belongs to the results obtained through the project "Research: Sustainable Aquaculture for the Department of Magdalena," which was co-founded by the governorship of the department of Magdalena and the Vice-presidency for Research of the University of Magdalena. Agreement 090.