Drumbeg sea creature
OK, beach-prowlers. What do you suppose this is? The photo was sent to me by a Gabriola blog reader who hopes you’ll know. Apparently the creature is about 9 inches long. Ideas?
Filed in Gabriola Island,photos,sea creatures 7 Comments so far
7 Responses to “Drumbeg sea creature”
Nick on 03 Sep 2010 at 8:51 am #
I suspect we need the help of a nudibranchologist.
cheryl on 03 Sep 2010 at 2:44 pm #
I decided to google sea cucumber and came up with several links, One was a blog called Marler Blog. and there was an article about two people who died eating fried sea cucumber. The picture used in the article is identical to this picture.
rick on 03 Sep 2010 at 4:01 pm #
I’m betting it’s a sea cucumber
enjay on 03 Sep 2010 at 8:29 pm #
Gotta be a sea cucumber, as others have said. Picture here.
Michael Mehta on 03 Sep 2010 at 9:28 pm #
It’s definitely a dried out sea cucumber. I was out diving today on the wall at Orlebar Point and was playing with one just like it at 115′ under water.
Andrea on 04 Sep 2010 at 3:43 am #
I think it’s the California sea cucumber aka Giant red sea cucumber, Parastichopus californicus.
http://www.bcseafood.ca/PDFs/fisheriesinfo/fishery-sea-cucumber.pdf
Occurs in tide pools in BC as well as deeper water, heads inshore to spawn in summer. They grow to be about 45 cm so the 9 inch size is reasonable. It’s the only commercially harvested sea cucumber in BC, so it probably is the one in the photo that Cheryl found. (I wonder what was wrong with the ones that the people who died ate? I don’t think I’ve ever eaten sea cucumber myself but lots of people do.)
I also checked the nudibranchs of BC to see if anything matched – there was one that was the right colour and with toothlike bumps on the surface but the bumps were much more regular and close together, the body form was oval instead of elongated, and the maximum size was only about 2 inches, not 9.
Nick on 04 Sep 2010 at 10:25 am #
A good marine-biologist friend of mine was studying sea cucumbers here a while ago as part of a project to see if they could be exploited commercially. I think the intended market was Japan. As I recall, they tasted a bit like the well-boiled inner tube of a bicycle tire must taste. I see the Wiki article says they become toxic when injured. The biggest problem my friend had was to keep them from eviscerating in the aquarium. They apparently eject some of their gut to put off would-be predators and people trying to study them. It must have worked because the project folded, although I think the main reason was that the researchers discovered they are long-lived and grow only very slowly.