It might look like a pickle or simply a brownish lump, but don't let the unassuming appearance of a sea cucumber fool you. 

For the coastal ecosystems of the Philippines, the cucumbers are critical for marine life, local economies, and food supplies. But overfishing in the 1970s and '80s depleted their populations, throwing entire ecosystems out of whack well into the 2000s.

To address the problem, an unlikely fleet of heroes has arisen with the development of sea cucumber ranches, the BBC reported. These ranches serve as nurseries and breeding grounds for the marine species from larval through mature ages.

For perspective, the daily catch per person in the small town of Bolinao was up to 220 pounds a day in the 1980s. By 2002, that had plummeted to fewer than 6 pounds.

"When I was a child, I used to see loads of them, but now that I'm older, they've become so little," said Aweng Caasi, a 61-year-old widow and one of the key ranchers and guardians of the sea cucumbers in Bolinao. "We want to restore them so they can multiply."

The cucumbers are eaten for food and used in medicine, but they provide even more value in their natural environment. 

They're often nicknamed the janitors of the sea, cleaning up the seafloor by munching on bacteria and decaying organic matter. This recycles beneficial nutrients into the environment, making waters more hospitable to a variety of fish species. 

They were even found to be linked to lower disease rates among corals, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications.

Humans benefit tremendously from a healthier marine environment, too. In Bolinao, the reef provides protection from storms, fish to sell and eat, and a major draw for tourists.

"This is a big help for us fisherfolk," Gemma Candelario told BBC. Gemma and Marivic Carolino raise mangroves near Bolinao, and they began monitoring and guarding sea cucumbers in their area in 2022. 

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"The sea cucumbers would eat waste [cleaning the ecosystem] so that's why more fish would appear. Some fish would lay eggs in our mangroves and other animals would appear such as crabs and shrimp."

The program is mostly managed by women and children, who raise the cucumbers in hatchery tanks at the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute (UPMSI) before transferring them to the ranches. 

There, they guard their protected areas against poachers. Aweng Caasi, for example, regularly spends hours at a time sitting in a wooden hut over Bolinao's waters.

The program has been tremendously successful; in its first 19 months, the local sea cucumber population grew more than 13 times its original size, from 400 individuals in 2007 to over 5,500 in 2009.

"It makes me happy to see the ones I've cared for grow bigger, and to see more of them," Candelario said. "We've raised thousands and we see them clearly during the monitoring period. I can't help but be glad to see how many they've grown to become."

Following its remarkable success, the provincial government approved an ordinance in January to officially declare several of the dedicated areas as protected sea cucumber reserves. 

The law also prohibited harvesting or trading sea cucumbers below a certain weight to maintain mature reproductive populations.

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