trepang

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trepang

(trəpăng`): see sea cucumbersea cucumber,
any of the flexible, elongated echinoderms belonging to the class Holothuroidea. Although sea cucumbers have the basic echinoderm radial symmetry (see Echinodermata), they do not have arms like starfish.
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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Trepang

(also bêche-de-mer), the name for several species of marine invertebrates used as food, of the phylum Echinoderma-ta. The group consists of holothurians (sea cucumbers) mainly of the genera Holothuria, Stichopus, and Cucumaria. Trepangs are caught mainly near the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines and near Australia, Asia, Africa, and Europe (Italy). Stichopus japonicus, which measures as much as 40 cm in length, is found off the coast of the USSR, in Petr Velikii Bay, of the Sea of Japan, at depths of 2–50 m.

The trepang is used as food mainly in China and Japan; it is caught in these countries and is also imported from abroad. The annual catch of trepangs in the Pacific Ocean reaches 10,000 quintals. Trepangs are caught by means of special trawls, dredges, nets, and spears; they are also caught by divers. The thick but relatively soft body walls are used as food. The flesh, which has little fat and is rich in proteins, may be eaten fresh or dried and salted.

REFERENCES

Fedotov, D. M. “Tip iglokozhikh (Echinodermata).” In Rukovodstvopo zoologii, vol. 3, part 2. Moscow, 1951.
Ivanov, A. V. Promyslovye vodnye bespozvonochnye. Moscow, 1955. Pages 200–10.
Zhizn’ zhivotnykh, vol. 2. Moscow, 1968. [26–541–]

References in periodicals archive ?

A major weakness of the collection is that while focusing productively on the Yolrju of north-east Arnhem Land, it virtually ignores the other major area of identified Macassan trepang activity, the west Kimberley coast from Cape Londonderry as far west as Port Hedland on the Pilbara coast.

Macassan history and heritage: journeys, encounters and influences

1999 The Archaeology of Fishing: Interpreting the Evidence for the Trepang Industry in North Kimberley.

Looking for the proverbial needle? The archaeology of Australian colonial frontier massacres

The 45-year-old man, who was a commercial trepang diver, was attacked near Black Point in Port Essington.

MAN PUNCHES CROC TO RESCUE HIS MATE; Horror at water's edge

It is highly probable that Escape Cliffs was visited by Makassar fishermen since time immemorial, though there is no hard evidence of their presence at the site, unlike at many other places along the north coast of Australia, where they left tamarind trees, cooking pots and other paraphernalia associated with their beche-de-mer and trepang fishing.

The ill-fated Escape Cliffs (Northern Territory) survey expedition 1864-661

Campbell Macknight, who has made ah extensive study of contact between Macassans and Aborigines, believed that the trepang industry probably began at the start of the eighteenth century.

The origin of the smallpox outbreak in Sydney in 1789

Drawing on the documentary record, oral history, and family narratives, she explores four historical moments: the 1906 outlawing of the Indonesian trepang (sea cucumber) trade by the South Australian government, federation era legislation designed to prohibit Indigenous-Asian alliances, the resurgence of white nation-building paranoia during World War II, and Australian politician Pauline Hanson's 1996 speech before the House of Representatives in which she warned that Australia was "in danger of being swamped by Asians" and decried the "privileges Aboriginals enjoy over other Australians." For each of these moments, Stephenson includes two chapters--the first describing the white Australian perspective and the second discussing the Indigeneous-Asian perspective.

The outsiders within; telling Australia's indigenous-Asian story

Chinese interest in the Indonesian archipelago began with trade in precious items--sandalwood from Timor, spices from Java, and later trepang (sea cucumbers or beches de mer)--from Macassar.

The discoveries of Australia: if there is any one story about the discovery of Australia, it is the opposite of the one that's usually told

Watkins, and headed for the polar cap to Camp Opal, another scientific research center aboard the submarine USS Trepang (SSN 674).

Time capsule

Polk (SSN 645); TRF Planning Dept Nuclear QA Kings Bay, GA; USS Trepang (SSN 674); USS Henry M.

Welcome aboard

By the early nineteenth century, when the market for its textiles was reduced by competition from Western manufactured cloth, trepang (sea-cucumber) and coconut products became Selayar's major export commodities, and by the 1850s, Selayarese ships were trading as far afield as Irian, Sarawak, and Singapore.

Dependence on Green Gold: a Socio-Economic History of the Indonesian Coconut Island Selayar

Most sea cucumbers (beche de mer, trepang) are dried and exported to Taiwan and Hong Kong, often through the US.

Bio Watch

1), also called trepang or hai-som, throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific (Conand, 1989a).