Common ingredients that go with sea cucumber dishes include winter melon, conpoy, kai-lan, shiitake mushroom, and Chinese cabbage.

Many commercially important species of sea cucumber are harvested and dried for export for use in Chinese cuisine as 海参 (pinyin: hǎishēn).

Some of the more commonly found species in markets include:[4] Western Australia has sea cucumber fisheries from Exmouth to the border of the Northern Territory; almost all of the catch is sandfish (Holothuria scabra).

Divers are supplied air via hose or "hookah" from the surface and collect their catch by hand, diving to depths of up to 40 m. From the 17th or 18th century CE onwards, traders from Sulawesi established extensive seasonal trade links with the Indigenous peoples of the Kimberley region, the modern-day Northern Territory, and Arnhem Land.

In the Suiyuan shidan, the Chinese Qing Dynasty manual of gastronomy, it is stated: "As an ingredient, sea cucumbers have little to no taste, are full of sand, and are fishy in smell.

[21] Chinese folk belief attributes male sexual health and aphrodisiac qualities to the sea cucumber, as it physically resembles a phallus, and uses a defence mechanism similar to ejaculation as it stiffens and squirts its own entrails at the aggressor.

[2] Following campaigns encouraging people to avoid shark fin soup, sea cucumber has become an increasingly popular replacement in China.