Context (DTE): Sea cucumbers can be functional in slowing coral reef decline.
Coral reefs are suffering from diseases, some of which are associated with sediment on the seafloor.
In several field experiments involving corals in Moorea, French Polynesia, and around Palmyra Atoll, researchers found that sea cucumbers grazed and consumed bacteria in the sediment.
Sea cucumber presence prevented pathogens from sickening co-occurring corals.
Sea cucumbers, scavengers of the seafloor that resemble cylindrical vegetables, have been consumed as a delicacy in Asia for centuries.
But in recent decades, they’ve been severely overharvested to the point that they are now quite rare.
Conserving sea cucumbers could help slow reef losses, giving nations more time to reduce ocean warming, overfishing, and pollution.
Sea cucumbers are part of a larger animal group called echinoderms, like starfish and sea urchins.
Appears similar to cucumber, with small tentacle-like tube feet for locomotion and feeding.
Sea cucumbers can confuse or harm predators by propelling their own toxic internal organs from their bodies in the direction of an attacker.
Size: Less than an inch (2.5 centimetres) to over six feet (1.8 meters). Life span: 5 to 10 years.
Range:Benthic (live on the ocean floor). Larvae are planktonic (float in the ocean currents). Found in virtually all marine environments.
Diet:Scavengers. Feeds on small food items in the benthic zone (seafloor) and plankton floating in the water column. They also eat algae, aquatic invertebrates, and waste particles.
When disturbed, sea cucumbers can expose skeletal hooklike structures that make them harder for predators to eat.
Behaviour: Both Sexual and asexual reproduction. Eggs undergo external fertilisation. Females release eggs into the water that are fertilised by coming into contact with sperm that males have released.