Species Fact Profile: California Sea Cucumber (Apostichopus californicus)

                                            California (Giant) Sea Cucumber                          

                                                Apostichopus californicus (Stimpson, 1857)

Range: Coastal North America, from Gulf of Alaska to Baja California

Habitat:  Intertidal Zone.  Depths of up to 250 meters

Diet: Organic Debris

Social Grouping: Solitary

Reproduction: Spawning takes place in August (thought to be associated with phytoplankton blooms), which each female producing thousands of eggs which are fertilized externally.  Resultant larva metamorphoses into adult form.  Reproductively mature at 4-8 years old

Lifespan: 12 Years

      Conservation Status: IUCN Least Concern

• Soft, roughly sausage-shaped body, up to 50 centimeters long, 5 centimeters wide, with a mouth at one end (surrounded by twenty retractable tentacles) and an anus at the other, five rows of tube -like feet
• Leathery skin is red-brown to yellow in color, covered with several irregularly shaped tubercles, usually tipped in red
• Feed by positioning themselves in a current which carries bits of organic matter within reach of their tentacles
• When threatened, the animal will expel its organs through its anus and secret sticky filaments, which can confuse and entangle the predator while the sea cucumber makes its escape.  The internal organs can be regrown.  Predators include sea stars, fish, crabs, and sea otters
• Fished on a small-scale for human consumption (especially sought after for Asian markets).  Believed to be sustainable.  Use of non-selective fishing methods, such as trawlers, has the potential to deplete populations and damage the habitat.  Some efforts to raise via aquaculture