Sea Cucumbers

01/08/2019

Sea Cucumbers

Among the vast array of animals that students from Halfmoon Bay School found on the seashore at Ringaringa, Stewart Island, was this SEA CUCUMBER. See if you can find it in the photos. It was pink with white spots, 3-4 cm in length and had short finger-like tentacles. It was under a rock in course sand, in the low tide zone. I wonder if it is Chriidota gigas or something similar? A description of this species is found at  http://portphillipmarinelife.net.au/species/4693/ . What do others think?

- What sort of texture is the bodywall? Chirdota gigas is very jellyish and looks like a worm. If you dissolve the spots in bleach and look in unser a microscope you will see small 6 pronged wheels. Was it found buried or attached to the rock? Tentacles?

- The texture was quite soft and worm-like. It did have feeding tentacles, quite short wth little finger-like projections that were picking up the sediment. It was on the sediment under a rock that we turned over.

- Sounds like an apodid with the small finger like projections. Could be a few species including Chiridota. usually a quick look under microscope can confirm if you need it to species level!