Eyes Under Puget Sound's Critter of the Month
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Creeping pedal sea cucumber, Psolus chitonoides. Photo courtesy of Dave Cowles, wallawalla.edu. |
Jeepers Creepers
Keep calm and creep on
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Psolus chitonoides with tube feet extended in rare moments of activity. Left: Photo courtesy of Aaron Baldwin, Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game. Right: Photo courtesy of Johanna Raupe, johannaraupe.com. |
Although its flat bottom side is covered in tube feet, this
sea cucumber doesn’t do much creeping. It is mostly sedentary, preferring to
attach its soft sole to smooth, vertical rock surfaces. It moves so little that
other organisms often colonize the top of its body, camouflaging everything but
the red feeding tentacles.
Don’t live in
fear of a surprise encounter with this creepy cuke … It is generally found in
deeper water (low intertidal zone to depths of about 240 meters) from Alaska to
California. In 30 years of sampling in Puget Sound, we have only collected four
of them; this is probably because our sampling occurs mostly in areas with soft
sediments rather than rocks.
Dark Web
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These creeping pedal sea cukes are in full feeding mode with sticky red tentacles waving. Photo by Jim Nestler, wallawalla.edu. |
Bad blood
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Psolus chitonoides with its tentacles retracted. Photo courtesy of Kevin Lee, diverkevin.com. |
This trick doesn’t always work. There are a few predators that aren’t affected by the chemicals, including the leather star, several species of sun stars, and the red rock crab. As a last-ditch effort to protect itself, the cucumber can completely retract its tentacles into its body. This leaves it looking like an unappetizing ball of orange armored plates. Now that’s what we call creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky!
By:
Dany Burgess & Angela Eagleston, Environmental Assessment Program
Critter of the Month

Dany and Angela share their discoveries by bringing us a Benthic Critter of the Month. These posts will give you a peek into the life of Puget Sound’s least-known inhabitants. We’ll share details on identification, habitat, life history, and the role each critter plays in the sediment community. Can't get enough benthos? See photos from our Eyes Under Puget Sound collection on Flickr.
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