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Inside the $200 million black market for... sea cucumbers?!

February 13, 2026

There's a huge transnational illegal trade going almost undetected in the Indian ocean: Not drugs, not guns...but sea cucumbers. They have become the most trafficked marine species in India, and growing globally too.

https://p.dw.com/p/58Rfy

The film uncovers a rapidly expandingillegal trade in sea cucumbers across the Indian Ocean, where the creatures have become the most traffickedmarine species in India. Demand is driven largely by markets in East and Southeast Asia, where sea cucumbers are prized as a delicacy and for traditional medicine. Because many species are now protected, poachers, middlemen, and organized smuggling networks have stepped in to meet demand, moving the animals across borders—often at night and through remote coastal routes—to evade authorities. The video follows Indian wildlife officers and coastal police as they attempt to intercept shipments, revealing how understaffed enforcement teams struggle against a lucrative, well‑organized black market.

We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. We'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

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Aditi Rajagopal from the DW Environment team
Aditi Rajagopal Aditi Rajagopal is a DW environment reporter mainly working for Planet A on Youtube and tiktok.
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Planet A

We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world and challenges the way we are dealing with climate change.