Fishing and Processing of Trepang
The creature and the food product are commonly known as sea cucumber, bêche-de-mer in French, trepang (or trīpang) in Indonesian, gamat in Malaysian.
Trepang live on the sea floor and are exposed at low tide. Fishing was traditionally done by hand, spearing, diving or dredging. The catch was placed in boiling water before being dried and smoked, to preserve the trepang for the journey back to Makassar and other South East Asian markets. Trepang is still valued by Chinese communities for its jelly-like texture, its flavour-enhancing properties, and as a stimulant and aphrodisiac. Matthew Flinders made a contemporary record of how trepang was processed when he met a Makassan fleet in February 1803.
Read more about this topic: Makassan Contact With Australia
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