now that I ’ megabyte home with my books and Internet, I can fill in a few more details about these colorful creatures .
The most widely used common diagnose for this species is the conspicuous ocean cucumber, but I besides found it called the bristly and the sea worm sea cucumber. These wormlike sea creatures might look like tap party balloons, but they ’ rhenium active members of the reef ’ s maintenance staff, vacuuming up organic count that settles on the ocean shock.
I became acquainted with the 3-foot-long sea cucumbers years ago when I excessively was new to the islands and taking biology courses at UH. One of my professors took our class to Kaneohe Bay ’ s Coconut Island, home of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, and there I saw the wyrd, serpentine things on the sandpaper in about two feet of water. The teach adjunct told me they were harmless sea cucumbers. I could pick one astir, but gently, she said .
well, appearance international relations and security network ’ t the only weird thing about this kin. The hide of these cucumbers sticks to your fingers in an odd, Velcro-like way, and the water-filled tube that is the creature ’ mho body has no chambers. When you pick up this animal, consequently, the water falls to either side, and you ’ re left holding what feels like a collapse fictile bag with bulging ends. When you put it down, the animal recovers its cylindrical form .
Hawaii hosts three species of serpentine sea cucumbers, a dub for their family, Synaptidae. Because their body walls are thin and bust easily, it ’ sulfur best not to take the animal from the water, but rather slide a pass below its middle and gently lift. You ’ ll see the body go flatcar and feel the creature ’ randomness bantam hooks embedded in its skin .
These harmless hooks don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate hurt homo hands and detach easily when you pull away. The hook help the animal hold its body in position as it eats .
absolutely plant and animal particles, whether suspended in the water or sitting on the ocean floor, are food for these sea cucumbers ( and the familiar firm-bodied kinds, besides ). The animals gather this nourishment with delicate tentacles at the mouth goal of the body. In slow rhythm the tentacles unfurl, pick up food particles and roll up, depositing the meal in the mouth.
light-sensitive organs at the establish of each tentacle sense shadows and bowel movement, causing the sea cucumber to tuck in its tentacles and contract its body .
conspicuous ocean cucumbers are precisely that, ranging in color from bright orange to pink to flannel. normally, you ’ ll find them sprawled on sand or seaweed in three feet or less of water in either Kaneohe Bay or Pearl Harbor. The species is rare or lacking everywhere else in Hawaii .
blatant ocean cucumbers have swellings along their bodies evocative of human colons. And speak of which, ocean cucumbers recycle particles from sewage spills, making them allies in helping manage our mistakes .
You can see excellent pictures of these pink/red/orange ocean cucumbers on Hawaii biologists Keoki and Yuko Stender ’ s web site, www.marinelifephotography.com. Click on Invertebrates, then Sea Cucumbers, then Conspicuous Sea Cucumbers ( Opheodesoma spectabilis ).
They ’ ra spongy and cool .
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Susan Scott can be reached at www.susanscott.net .
