The viva session was held for the project on stock assessment and distribution pattern of sea cucumber species in the coastal waters of Sistan and Baluchestan Province. Project viva session was held for the project executor, Mr. Teimur Amin Rad, at the conference hall of the Iranian Fisheries Science and Research Institute. The project was aimed at identifying the resources of economically important sea cucumber species. The most important results of this project are as follows.
·In the present study, identification of sea cucumber species was performed using morphological and extraction of bone-like structures using digestive methods. 20 species of sea cucumbers were observed and recorded in the studied transects. Of these, 12 species belonged to the holothuroidea family, three species belonged to the stichoputidae family and one species belonged to the cocomoridae family. Two species of sea cucumber were anonymous.
·Only two commercially important species in the studied transects have been identified that can be harvested. The dominant species of these two species was Holothuria leucospilota from the holothuroidea family with the average length of 47 cm and the average weight of 300 g. The second species was Stichopus varigatus from the stichoputidae family (sea cucumbers from this family was observed only in the Chabahar Bay transects) with the average length of 45 cm and the average weight of 850 g.
·The total biomass of sea cucumber was estimated in the three studied areas and 79% of the total studied sea cucumbers were related to Holothuria leucospilota, 6% belonged to the Stichopus varigatus and 15% belonged to other species.
·The meeting discussed the methodology and the main results of the project. It was decided that due to the importance and biological role of this aquatic organism in refining the environment, some biological and ecological parameters should be included in the development of the future document. Additional studies are required to make the necessary decisions regarding the logical and sustainable exploitation of these resources.