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The sea cucumber is an echinoderm of the class Holothuroidea, with an elongated body and leathery skin and is mostly found on the sea floor worldwide. It is so named because of its cucumber-like shape. Like all echinoderms, sea cucumbers have an endoskeleton just below the skin.
Sea cucumbers are generally scavengers, feeding on debris in the benthic layer. Their diet consists of plankton and other organic matter found in the sea. One way they might get a supply of food is to position themselves in a current where they can catch food that flow by with their tentacles when they open. Another way is to sift through the bottom sediments using their tentacles. They can be found in great numbers beneath fish farms.
They have the peculiar adaptation of expelling first sticky threads, perhaps to incapacitate predators, and then their internal organs when startled by a potential predator. These organs can then be regrown.
When sea cucumbers are eating, by browsing the seabed, they cannot breathe through their mouth, so they can breathe through their bottom as well. Sea cucumbers reproduce by releasing sperm and ova into the ocean water. Depending on conditions, one organism can produce thousands of gametes.
Sea cucumbers in art
Surprising as it may seem, sea cucumbers have inspired musical composition: in the first of his Embryons desséchés for piano solo, Erik Satie presents the "(Desiccated embryo) of a Holothurian" and inserts a description of the animal in the score:
- The Holothurian crawls across boulders and rocky surfaces.
- This sea-animal purrs like a cat; also, it produces disgusting silky threads.
- Light appears to have an incommodating effect on it.
Nonetheless it is the sea cucumber's closest relative (the echinoidea or sea urchin) that gets the most attention from scientists, both as an embryo and as a fossil.
Sea cucumbers have also inspired thousands of haiku in Japan, where they are called "namako" (written with characters that can be translated "sea mice"). In English translations of these haiku, they are usually called "sea slugs"; there is a book with almost 1000 holothurian haiku translated from Japanese titled "Rise, Ye Sea Slugs!" by Robin D. Gill (ISBN 0974261807). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the "sea slug" is a holothurian first, but biologists insist on using "sea slug" only for the nudibranch, a marine-dwelling relative of land slugs.
Sea cucumber as food and medicine
Sea cucumber is one of the strangest foodstuffs in Chinese cuisine. It is highly valued for its supposed medicinal properties. The flesh of the animal is "cleaned" in a process that takes several days. Trepang is often purchased dried, and rehydrated before use. The product is used in Chinese stews and braised dishes due to its gelatinous texture but is unappetising on its own. In Japanese cuisine, Konowata is made of sea cucumber entrails which are extracted, salted, and cured. It is considered a major delicacy in Far East countries such as Malaysia, China, Japan, and Indonesia.
Some varieties of sea cucumber (known as gamat in Malaysia) are said to have excellent healing properties. There are pharmaceutical companies being built based on this gamat product. Extracts are prepared and made into oil, cream or cosmetics. Some products are intended to be taken internally. The effectiveness of sea cucumber extract in tissue repair has been the subject of serious study. It not only helps a wound heal more quickly but is also said to reduce scarring.
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Trivia
- In The Movie, Steve-O, is shown masturbating with a sea cucumber. Certain types of sea cucumber expel their stomach linings as a form of defense when agitated or threatened. This comes out in sticky white strings.
- In Azumanga Daioh - The Animation, Osaka refers to her basketball team as "Namako Team", much to the other members' dismay. When the students go scuba diving during the class trip to Okinawa, Osaka picks up some sea cucumbers. Another episode shows a pair of photos from the Okinawa trip, one of which shows Osaka on the beach with a sea cucumber on her head.
- In Azumanga Daioh - The Manga Volume 4, Osaka throws sea cucumbers at her classmates devilishly ejaculating "Namako!!" as she hurles the cucumbers towards them.
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"Sea cucumber"