Not EvaluatedSnake Sea Cucumber
Synapta maculata
61 countries35 parks231 dive sites
Species group · Sea cucumbers
WAnimals has 4 species of sea cucumber, spread across 3 families (Cucumariidae, Holothuriidae, Synaptidae).
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 4.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
1 species in this group is in a threatened category according to the IUCN.
Recorded in 80 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
It has no tube feet and no respiratory organs at all: it breathes through its skin and moves by crawling through contractions of the body wall.
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Its skin grips the hand like adhesive tape thanks to microscopic carbonate anchors embedded in the body wall.
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It can break apart if handled, and some fragments are able to regenerate a complete animal.
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By processing tonnes of sediment a year, sea cucumbers aerate and clean the reef floor and lower its local acidity, a service that favours coral growth.
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Under attack it can expel part of its internal organs through the anus — sticky and sometimes toxic — and regrow them within weeks.
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It is one of the species traded as trepang or bêche-de-mer, and the enormous Asian demand has depleted its populations across much of the Indo-Pacific.
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It feeds like an anemone rather than like a burrowing sea cucumber: it spreads its branched tentacles into the current and puts them into its mouth in turn, cleaning off the particles each one has caught.
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It supports a growing fishery in Canada, Iceland and Norway, driven by Asian demand, on a species that grows slowly and matures late.
