Sea cucumbers "Holothuroidea"

vannour (69)in #food • 10 years ago

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations publish FAO Species Catalogue for Fishery Purposes No. 6 "COMMERCIALLY IMPORTANT SEA CUCUMBERS OF THE WORLD" Rome, 2012. review the Sea cucumbers.

I @vannour holding two Sea cucumbers on the beach Lhok Mee

Sea cucumbers on the beach Lhok Mee

Sea cucumbers have an orally-aborally (longitudinally) elongated body. The pentamerous symmetry is sometimes recognizable by the presence of 5 meridional ambulacra bearing podia. Sea cucumbers live on the substrate of the sea floor with their ventral surface (or trivium). This creeping sole bears the locomotory podia, while on the dorsal surface (or bivium), the podia are often represented by papillae. Consequently, a secondary bilateral symmetry is evident.

Main external anatomical features of a sea cucumber. Source image

Holothurians are found throughout all oceans and seas, at all latitudes, from the shore down to abyssal plains. The adult stages are benthic (living on the sea bottom); some species live on hard substrates, rocks, coral reefs, or as epizoites on plants or invertebrates. Most of the species inhabit soft bottoms, on the sediment surface or buried in the sediment. Among the commercial coastal holothurians, the Aspidochirotida are predominant in the tropics, while the Dendrochirotida are more common in temperate regions. Sea cucumbers within the order Aspidochirotida have planktotrophic larvae, i.e. that feed on microalgae in the water column during the dispersive larval phase. Within the order Dendrochirotida, the larvae of sea cucumbers described in this book are lecithotrophic, i.e. the dispersive larvae feed on a lipid yolk rather than on microalgae in the water column.

Anatomy of the aspidochirotid sea cucumber Holothuria whitmaei Bell, 1887 (after Conand, 1989). Source image

Sea cucumbers are nutritious and high in nutrients dish containing Vitamin A, Vitamin B1 (thiamine), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B3 (niacin), and minerals, especially calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc.

Kripik teripang, Indonesian sea cucumber cracker. Source image