Guide of SEA CUCUMBER

Sea Cucumbers - Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory
An abundance of osicles in the body wall makes it stiffer than most other sea cucumbers.
E-1772 LABORATORY SEA CUCUMBER , Thyone briareus , occurs abundantly from Maine to Texas, and has been traditionally used for dissection and study.
Grows to be the largest of all cucumbers in the Gulf of Mexico.


SEA CUCUMBER

SEACUKE Case
The Issue Sea cucumbers are being harvested illegally in the Galapagosislands of Ecuador, and sold on Asian markets, due to the highdemand.
In Asian countries, the sea cucumber is considered to be anaphrodisiac as well as having medicinal properties.
Thecontroversy in the Galapagos involves the inability to sustain seacucumber harvesting, and the removal of millions of sea cucumberswill have detrimental effects on the food chain in the waters ofthe Galapagos.
The local population is indifferent to the plightof the lowly sea cucumber, as they have become disenchanted withthe importance of the unique environment on the Galapagos.
Description The sea cucumber is related to the starfish, and are big slug-like blobs that move around on side-by-side pedal-like feet.
'Fishing for these creatureshas so depleted stocks that the search for them is now going on asfar away as Oregon and Alaska.' They play an important role inthe chain of marine and other life.
Sea cucumbers scavenge thefloors of the reef, suck up sediment and redeposit it in a moreaerated form, much like the earthworm.
The larvae from the seacucumber forms a vital part of the zooplankton that sustains manyother sea creatures such as crustaceans, fishes, seals, whales, anthropods and mollusks.

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info: SEA CUCUMBER


Photo by www.caribdiveguide.com

Giant sea cucumber Information Page
The giant red or California sea cucumber is the largest member of the family Holothuroidea, and a relative of sea urchins, sand dollars, starfish, brittle stars, and other echinoderms.
While all other animals are bilaterally symmetrical, the bodies of sea cucumbers and their relatives are radially pentamerous B organized in a circle with five or multiples of five sections B and they have no brains or heads.
The giant red sea cucumbers reach thirty inches in length and are bright red as adults.
Sea cucumbers have a unique way of defending themselves by shedding their internal organs to entangle and confuse predators.
Like most echinoderms, sea cucumbers have enormous powers of regeneration.

Benefits



Sea Cucumber
Sea Cucumber / weli Sea cucumbers [the Hawaiian name is weli or loli ] are bottom-dwelling marine creatures that are our "reef janitors".
Although they look quite different, these unusual creatures belong to the same family as starfish and sea urchins.
Sea cucumbers come in two basic varieties: (1) those with tube feet, which work on water pressure; and (2) those without tube feet.
The common, large, dark-colored sea cucumbers generally have tube feet on the lower surface of the body that they use to glide over sand or pebbles.
The sea cucumber pictured above ( weli ) belongs to the group without tube feet.

SEA CUCUMBER: