Endangered items are being sold in the food market in New York, U.S.

A recent study has unearthed “genetic evidence” That some endangered species of sea cucumbers are being sold to consumers in three New York City Chinatown districts. With findings published in the journal Sustainability, researchers from Cornell University surveyed food market retailers in the tree Chinatown districts and found that the item being sold is considered a “pricey but nutritious dried delicacy”. To carry out the study, the researchers collected 103 samples of dried sea cucumbers from retail food shops. Through using mitochondrial DNA testing, they identified 74 examples of sea cucumbers. Eight of the items were classified as brown sea cucumbers– which are threatened and found on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List because of overharvesting. Lead Author of the study Jesse Rodenbiker, a former Postdoctoral Researcher at Cornell, and now an Assistant Teaching Professor in Geography at Rutgers University, explained: “We were able to ...