The California sea cucumber (''Apostichopus californicus''), also known as the giant California sea cucumber, is a

sea cucumber Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class (biology), class Holothuroidea ( ). They are benthic marine animals found on the sea floor worldwide, and the number of known holothuroid species worldwide is about 1,786, with the greatest number be ...

that can be found from the

Gulf of Alaska The Gulf of Alaska ( Tlingit: ''Yéil T'ooch’'') is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the ...

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

. It is found from the low

intertidal zone The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of habitats with various ...

to a depth of . They are most abundant in areas with moderate current with cobbles, boulders or bedrock. They are artisanally fished.

Description

The California sea cucumber can grow to a length of and a width of . It has a soft, cylindrical body, with red-brown to yellowish leathery skin. It has an

endoskeleton An endoskeleton (From Ancient Greek ἔνδον, éndon = "within", "inner" + σκελετός, skeletos = "skeleton") is a structural frame (skeleton) — usually composed of mineralized tissue — on the inside of an animal, overlaid by soft ...

just below the skin. The mouth and anus are on opposite ends of the body. The mouth is surrounded by twenty retractable

tentacle In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work main ...

s that are used to bring food in. Five rows of

tube feet Tube or tubes may refer to: * Tube (2003 film), ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film * "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM#Tubes, Soccer AM television show * Tube (band), a Japanese rock band * Tube & Berger, the alias of dance/e ...

extend from the mouth to the anus. They use their tube feet located on the underside of their body to attach themselves to rocks.

Feeding

The California sea cucumber is a scavenger that feeds on organic matter. They feed by sifting through sediments with their tentacles, or by positioning themselves in a current where they can use their tentacles to catch food flowing by. They can live 10 years old.

Behavior and reproduction

''A. californicus'' is a solitary nocturnal animal. When threatened, it can eviscerate, expelling its organs through its anus. It can also expel sticky filaments to ensnare or confuse predators. These sea cucumbers have separate sexes, and

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

s are fertilized externally. Spawning usually takes place in August, and each female can produce thousands of eggs. After fertilization, a larva is formed which metamorphoses into a sea cucumber after a few weeks.

References

*Benton, William, et al. Britannica Macropaedia. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc, 1976. *''Stichopus californicus''. NWMarineLife.com, Olympia, Washington

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q27157894, from2=Q2491427 Stichopodidae Marine fauna of the Gulf of California Echinoderms of the Pacific Ocean Echinoderms described in 1857 Taxa named by William Stimpson Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN