Sea Cucumber Stories explores multispecies entanglements and ocean worldings, from a sea cucumber perspective. Drawing on environmental, multispecies and ocean anthropology, it enlists the sea cucumber to tell stories of how and why the ocean and its creatures matter to life on our blue planet. The chapters draw on multisited, multimodal and multisensory fieldwork in Tanzania, where the sea cucumber is undergoing interesting transformations, from an ocean creature created by God to a commodity in the global seafood market, farmed for export to China. While breaking new ground in multispecies anthropology, this creative book builds on the author’s earlier work in digital and literary anthropology. Sea cucumber stories are told from an imaginary as well as a scholarly perspective. The sea cucumber is treated as a fellow creature to draw attention to the wonders of multispecies undersea worlds and the troubles of human exploitation of what is perceived as a marine resource.

As part of the Blue Economy development paradigm, sea cucumber farming is nowencouraged by the government and international partners, to improve livelihoodswhile protecting the ocean. Sea cucumbers have featured in lucrative trade fordecades, being collected for export to China. But demand has been so great that thisocean creature has become endangered globally. Aquaculture is now hyped as asustainable solution to the problems of overexploitation, enacted through borderedenclosures in the ocean, and an optimistic rhetoric of sea cucumbers as marine gold.This article argues that farmed sea cucumbers are embedded in blueentrepreneurship, a moral economy of neoliberal commodification. But whileenacting blue capitalism, sea cucumber aquaculture may actually counteract socialand environmental sustainability. Ocean grabbing and elite capture exacerbatesocioeconomic vulnerability in coastal communities; while sea cucumbers risk dyingin captivity, unable to protect themselves from extreme weather and other climatechanges. This ethnographic study builds on multi-sited fieldwork in MainlandTanzania and Zanzibar, using multimodal and sensory research methods. 

This introduction frames a special issue exploring human-ocean creature relationships through the lens of care. The authors examine how care practices for marine species manifest across different contexts—from commercial fishing and aquaculture to conservation efforts – while highlighting these relationships’ complex, often contradictory nature. Drawing on anthropology of the ocean, political ecology, and multispecies studies, the collection investigates who cares for ocean creatures, how care is practiced, and the politics that shape these interactions. The authors acknowledge the tension between exploitation and protection, profit motives and environmental concerns, noting that care for particular species often occurs at the expense of others. By centring ocean creatures as ethnographic subjects, the collection contributes to growing anthropological interest in environmental justice and multispecies relations while advocating for more holistic approaches to marine environments in the Anthropocene.

This special issue focuses on how the Blue Economy development modelimpacts on coastal livelihoods and sea sustainability in Tanzania. The BlueEconomy discourse tends to be framed in optimistic rhetoric of newopportunities for development, promising a triple-win scenario of economicgrowth, improved livelihood and marine protection. But socioeconomicrealities on the ground offer a more nuanced appraisal of the challenges andopportunities involved. This multidisciplinary special issue interrogatescritical aspects of development in the Blue Economy, focusing on both socialand environmental sustainability. The articles draw on recently concludedempirical research on how coastal communities relate to the ocean, as partof the research project Swahili Ocean Worlds. Fishing Communities and SeaSustainability in Tanzania (2022–2024). The studies presented here cover avariety of topics explored by the research team: coastal livelihoods, women’snarratives and inclusion, aquaculture and entrepreneurship, changing fishingpractices and cultural expressions of music. When analysing their findings,the authors draw on their knowledge in the disciplines of anthropology,creative arts, development studies, geography and sociology, thuscontributing to the oceanic turn in social sciences. 

Farming sea cucumbers for export to China is an emerging form of artisanal aquaculture on the Swahili coast in Tanzania. The government's Blue Economy development paradigm encourages this approach, promising a ‘triple win’ of increased income in fishing communities, marine conservation and economic growth. Sea cucumber farming is thus discursively framed in terms of caring for both humans and the environment. But how do such ideals of care translate into practice? What are the limitations of caring for the political ecology of the blue economy? This article investigates sea cucumber farming as a practice of care and domestication in amphibious Swahili ocean worlds. It argues that contrary to the rhetoric of the Blue Economy, farming sea cucumbers has yet to improve local livelihoods, while it risks the very lives of these ocean creatures. The article shows the importance of paying closer attention to human engagements with various ocean creatures to appreciate the economic and ecological impact of human-ocean relationships in the global context of blue capitalism.