Sea cucumbers are some of the strangest-looking organisms on the beach. They might have the shape of a cucumber, but that is where the resemblance ends. At first glance, a sea cucumber looks like a plant, but it is an animal. As I mentioned in my last post, they are echinoderms related to sea stars, sea urchins, and sand dollars.
There are more than 1,250 species of sea cucumbers, and they occupy nearly every marine habitat worldwide. They range in size from one to two inches (2.5 to 5 cm.) to 10 ft. (3 meters). Most species reach a maximum length of between four to twelve inches (10 to 30 cm). Most, but not all, sea cucumbers have a cylindrical shape with protruding tube feet covering their bodies. All sea cucumbers live in the ocean, but some live in the. shallows, while others inhabit the deep ocean floor. They are benthic animals, meaning that they are bottom dwellers at whatever depth they live.
Sea cucumbers feed on algae, tiny aquatic animals, or waste particles. They gather their food with the eight to thirty tube feet surrounding their mouth.
When threatened by a predator, some species of sea cucumbers can discharge sticky threads to ensnare their attacker. Other species violently contract their muscles and propel their toxic organs from their bodies toward their attackers. They can quickly regenerate the missing organs. Sea cucumbers can also expose skeletal hooklike structures, making it more difficult for a predator to eat them.
While sea cucumbers can reproduce asexually, sexual reproduction is more common. They are broadcast spawners and gather in groups to release their eggs and sperm into the water simultaneously. When the eggs and sperm happen to meet, fertilization occurs. Sea cucumbers have a life span of five to ten years.
A sizeable culinary market for sea cucumbers exists in Asia, where certain species are considered a delicacy. The giant red cucumber is harvested in Alaska. Red sea cucumbers are found in many nearshore areas from Baja California, north and west to the Gulf of Alaska. Alaska’s largest sea cucumber fishery occurs in Southeast Alaska, with smaller fisheries near Kodiak and Chignik. Scuba divers commercially harvest cucumbers and then deliver eviscerated but live animals to shore-based processors. The cucumbers are processed by separating the five longitudinal muscle bundles from the skin with a scraper or a knife. The processor then boils the skin and dries it into a product called trepang or beche de mer. The processor freezes the longitudinal muscles and markets the dried skin and frozen muscles locally in the U.S. and Asia.
In early October, we often see sea cucumber harvesters diving for animals near our lodge. I often think they have a tough job jumping into the frigid ocean, searching for a small sluggish animal on the ocean floor.
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Robin Barefield is the author of four Alaska wilderness mystery novels: Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, The Fisherman’s Daughter, and Karluk Bones. She recently released the non-fiction book Kodiak Island Wildlife. Sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true crime and mystery in Alaska, and listen to her podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier.
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