Reading: sea cucumber | echinoderm
many sea cucumbers can expel their home organs through the anus and grow new ones. This may be a device for escape from a marauder, or it may occur for physiologic reasons. Some species besides expel speciate gluey filaments that ensnare or confuse an enemy. Sea cucumbers shelter pearlfish ( Carapus species ) in the anal cavity, with the head of the fish extrude. A number of ocean cucumber species exude a toxin that is deadly to little animals but not to humans ; South Sea islanders place ocean cucumber juices in urine to kill or stupefy pisces .
sea cucumber Sea cucumber ( Kolga hyalina ) from the deep seafloor of the Arctic Ocean ‘s canadian Basin .Bodil Bluhm—NOAA/Census of Marine Life Sea cucumbers are found in all oceans, by and large in shallow water but sometimes at depths of many thousands of metres. They are good represented in the indian Ocean and the western Pacific. The 80 to 100 species of large, verrucose ocean cucumbers of the genus Holothuria are particularly abundant on coral reefs. Most species of Holothuria are deposition feeders alike to earthworms : they ingest sediment to extract the organic constituents.
Sea cucumbers are harvested to produce numerous products, including medicines and dietary supplements, shampoo, and toothpaste. however, bêche-de-mer, the dried out body rampart, is considered to be the most valuable separate of the animal. It is a fragility throughout Asia, particularly in China, and the edacious demand for bêche-de-mer has reduced the stocks of many ocean cucumber species across the world. The populations of numerous high-value species, including H. fuscogilva, H. whitmaei, H. scabra, and Isostichopus fuscus, have been decimated by overfishing that has occurred since the 1980s. Harvesting operations subsequently targeted dozens of lower-value species, such as Cucumaria frondosa, an abundant species from temperate and polar waters. population studies have been performed on relatively few commercial species, and, frankincense, little is known about the conservation status of these forms. Although attempts to raise some species, such as I. fuscus and H. scabra, in aquaculture ponds have been moderately successful, many ecologists worry that respective species harvested for bêche-de-mer have become extinct in the rush to supply sea cucumbers to commercial markets.
