Species · GBIF taxon 5967442
California Sea Cucumber
Apostichopus californicusAlso known as Giant California Sea Cucumber, Giant Red Sea Cucumber
California sea cucumbers are large, cylindrical echinoderms covered in soft, yellowish-red conical papillae that give them a spiked appearance. They crawl slowly along the seafloor using hundreds of tiny tube feet, vacuuming up organic detritus and sediment to clean the seabed. When severely threatened, they can eject their internal organs as a defensive distraction, regenerating them completely within a few weeks.
BenthicDetritivoreMarine
Licensed reference(c) Ken-ichi Ueda, some rights reserved (CC BY) · cc-by
- diet
- Organic detritus, decaying matter, marine sediment, and microscopic algae
- family
- Stichopodidae
- threats
- Commercial harvesting, habitat degradation, and ocean acidification
- life Span
- Up to 12 years
LC
Safe to observe at a normal distance.
- Look in tide pools: Search deep rocky crevices during extremely low tides along the Pacific coast.
- Avoid handling: Touching them can cause them to contract tightly or stress-eviscerate their internal organs.
- Watch for movement: Observe their slow, undulating crawl and the sweeping motion of their feeding tentacles.