Sierra Leone: China's Hunger for Sea Cucumbers Reaches Islands of Sierra Leone

May 2, 2014 | Tommy Trenchard, Reuters
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(Reuters) - As evening falls over Sierra Leone's Banana Island archipelago, bats stream from their beachside roosts to circle in their thousands over the jungle village of Dublin.

Below them a struggle is playing out over an unexpected commodity - the lowly sea cucumber, a fleshy, sausage-shaped creature that scavenges for food on the seabed.

It is a struggle that is familiar to many in the West African country.

Sierra Leone's resources - diamonds, gold, fish and more recently iron ore - have been extracted and exported in great quantities throughout its history, yet the country remains one of the poorest in the world.