Sri Lanka, Aug. 11 -- By Jekhan Aruliah

The Seacucumber Symposium in Jaffna, sponsored by the US based investment organisation Synamon Global, brought together many diverse opinions to share and enhance knowledge and understanding. Academics and entrepreneurs gave their opinions and advice, occasionally in heated fashion. Thus achieving Synamon Global's objective, to make the seacucumber industry a powerful sustainable and environmentally sensitive contributor to the Sri Lankan economy.

Contradictory statements were heard. Are the seacucumbers "cleaners of the ocean", by their eating habits consuming detritus and other matter which they process to release what is cleaner and more useful for the ecology? Or does the high density of the a...