March 24th, 2013
SEA CUCUMBERS (Holothurioidea)or sea egg pods. Sea capsules, sea cucumbers or sea cucumbers are animals whose body contracts strongly at the slightest touch, after which in many forms it becomes similar to an old capsule or cucumber. About 1,100 species of sea egg-pods are known. The name “sea cucumbers” was given to these animals by Pliny, and the description of some species belongs to Aristotle.
Holothurians are interesting due to their external features, bright colors, interesting lifestyle and some habits; in addition, they have quite a significant economic importance. Over 30 species and varieties of sea cucumbers are used by humans for food. Edible sea cucumbers, often called sea cucumbers, have long been valued as a very nutritious and medicinal dish, so fishing for these animals has been practiced since ancient times.
The main sea cucumber fisheries are concentrated mainly off the coast of Japan and China, in the waters of the Malay Archipelago, off the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean, and near the Philippine Islands. Less significant fisheries for sea cucumbers are carried out in the Indian Ocean, in the Red Sea, off the coast of America, Africa, Australia and Italy. In the Far Eastern seas, two species of edible sea cucumbers are caught (Stichopus japonicus and Cucumaria japonica), which are used to prepare canned food and dried foods. The musculocutaneous sac of sea cucumbers, which has previously been subjected to long-term processing by boiling, drying, and in some countries, smoking, is most often consumed as food. Broths and stews are prepared from such semi-finished products. In Italy, fishermen eat fried sea cucumbers without subjecting them to complex pre-processing.
In their raw form, edible sea cucumbers are used as food in Japan, where, after removing the entrails, they are cut into slices and seasoned with soy sauce and vinegar. In addition to the skin-muscle sac, residents of Japan and the Pacific Islands use for food the intestines and gonads of edible sea cucumbers, which are more valuable. Some modern European companies produce various canned foods from sea cucumbers, which are in great demand. The world fishery for Stichopus japonicus in 1981 amounted to 8098 million tons. In addition to fishing, holothurian breeding is also practiced, in particular in our Far East. Holothurians are quite large animals, the average size of which is from 10 to 40 cm. However, among them there are also dwarf species, barely reaching a few millimeters, and real giants, whose body length with a relatively small diameter - about 5 cm - can reach 2 m, and sometimes even 5 m. In body shape, holothurians are very different from representatives of other classes of echinoderms. Most of them rather resemble large worms, but some species have an almost cylindrical or spindle-shaped, and sometimes spherical or somewhat flattened body, bearing various outgrowths on the back.
Despite this body shape, in holothurians it is almost always possible to quite clearly distinguish between the dorsal and ventral sides, although their ventral side does not morphologically correspond to that of other bilaterally symmetrical animals. They actually crawl on their sides, with their mouth end first, so the names “ventral” and “dorsal” sides are arbitrary, but quite justified. In many forms, the ventral side is more or less strongly flattened and adapted for crawling. The ventral side includes 3 radii and 2 interradii, which is why it is often called the trivium, and the dorsal side, or bivium, consists of 2 radii and 3 interradii. The location of the legs on the body of sea egg capsules further enhances the difference between the dorsal and ventral sides, since the strongly contractile legs of the trivium, concentrated on the radii or sometimes found on the interradii, are equipped with suckers and serve for the movement of the animal, while the legs of the bivium often lose motor function and are deprived suckers become thinner and already have sensitive functions. There is no separation of the head in holothurians, although in a number of forms, for example, in deep-sea representatives of the order of side-footed holothurians, one can notice some separation of the anterior end from the rest of the body, which is why it is sometimes called the head.
The mouth, devoid of any devices for grinding food and closed by the perioral sphincter, is located at the anterior end of the body or slightly shifted to the ventral side; the anus is placed at the posterior end. In relatively few forms that burrow into mud or attach to rocks, the mouth and anus move to the dorsal side, giving the animal a spherical, flask-shaped or vaulted shape. Very characteristic of all holothurians are the tentacles surrounding the mouth, which are modified ambulacral legs. The number of tentacles ranges from 8 to 30, and their structure varies among representatives of different orders. The tentacles can be tree-like branched and relatively large, covering a large area of water when catching prey, or shorter, shield-shaped, resembling flowers and intended mainly for collecting nutritional material from the surface of the ground, or simple with a different number of finger-like processes, or feathery, helping with burrowing. holothurians into the ground. All of them, like the ambulacral legs, are connected to the canals of the aquifer system and are essential not only for nutrition and movement, but also for touch, and in some cases, for breathing.
Another distinctive feature of sea egg pods is that most forms have soft skin. Only a few representatives of the orders of tree-tentacled holothurians and dactylochirotids have an exoskeleton visible to the naked eye in the form of plates that fit tightly to each other and form a kind of shell. The skin skeleton of other holothurians consists of microscopic calcareous plates of a very bizarre and surprisingly beautiful shape. We can find, along with smooth plates containing a small number of holes, openwork “baskets”, “glasses”, “sticks”, “buckles”, “tennis rackets”, “turrets”, “crosses”, “wheels”, “anchors” . In addition to the skin of the body, calcareous plates can be found in the tentacles, perioral membrane, ambulacral legs, and genitals. Only a few species lack calcareous plates, but for most species they are characteristic and play an important role in identification.
The largest skeletal formation is located inside the body of the holothurian and surrounds the pharynx. The pharyngeal calcareous ring of holothurians comes in various shapes: with or without processes, solid or mosaic, etc., but, as a rule, consists of 10 pieces, 5 of which correspond to the radii of the animal, 5 to interradii. In a number of forms, the pharyngeal ring serves as the attachment point for five ribbon-like muscles (retractor muscles), which draw the anterior end of the body inward along with the tentacles. Straightening the anterior end of the body and extending the tentacles is ensured by the action of the other five ribbon-like muscles (protractor muscles) attached to the pharyngeal ring next to the retractors. The musculature of sea egg capsules is quite developed and enhances the strength of their integument; the musculocutaneous sac consists of a layer of transverse muscles and five pairs of longitudinal muscle bands located along radii.
With the help of such strong muscles, some holothurians move, burrow into the ground and strongly contract their body at the slightest irritation. The internal structure of sea egg capsules has already been considered when characterizing type A. One should, perhaps, only pay attention to a special protective device - Cuvier's organs, found in certain groups of holothurians, and to special respiratory organs - aquatic lungs. Cuvier's organs are developed in different representatives of the order of thyroid-tentacled holothurians. They are glandular tube-like formations that flow into the extension of the hind intestine - the cloaca. When an animal is irritated, they are able to be thrown out through the cloaca and stick to the irritating object. Aquatic lungs, which are absent in side-footed and legless holothurians, are also connected to the cloaca by a common duct. They are two highly branched trunks located to the left and right of the cloaca and connected to the body wall and intestinal loops by very thin muscular and connective tissue cords. Water lungs can be brightly colored orange and occupy a significant part of the animal's body cavity.
The terminal lateral branches of the pulmonary trunks form thin-walled ampulla-shaped extensions, and quite often the left aqueous lung is entangled in a network of blood vessels. The walls of the aquatic lungs are equipped with highly developed muscles, the relaxation of which leads to the expansion of the lung cavity and the drawing of sea water inward through the cloaca, and the contraction leads to the expulsion of water from the lung. Thus, thanks to the rhythmic contractions and relaxations of the cloaca and aquatic lungs, sea water fills the smallest branches of the latter, and oxygen dissolved in water penetrates through their thin walls into the fluid of the body cavity and is distributed throughout the body. Very often, substances unnecessary for the body are released through the water lungs. The thin walls of the water lungs are easily torn, and amebocytes, loaded with decay products, are expelled. Almost all holothurians are dioecious; hermaphrodites are very rare among them, and most of them are in the order of legless holothurians.
Typically, in hermaphrodites, the gonads first produce male reproductive cells - sperm, and then female reproductive cells - eggs; but there are species in which both male and female reproductive products develop simultaneously in one gonad. For example, Labidoplax buskii (from the order of legless sea cucumbers), living in the northern regions of the Atlantic Ocean, breeds off the coast of Sweden in the fall, from October to December. At this time of year, its hermaphrodite gonad contains equally mature female and male reproductive cells, but each holothurian releases eggs into the water first, and after a day or two, sperm, or vice versa. The release of reproductive products into the water can occur at intervals and in small portions. Numerous observations have shown that sea cucumbers sweep out reproductive products in the evening or at night. Apparently, darkness is a stimulus for spawning. Most often, reproduction occurs in spring or summer and is associated with temperature, but there are species in which mature reproductive products can be found throughout the year, but their maximum development, for example in Holothuria tubulosa, is observed in August or September. The timing of spawning varies not only for different species, but also for the same species if it has a large range.
Thus, the sea cucumber Cucumaria frondosa, which is very common in the Barents and Kara Seas, breeds in these seas in June - July, and off the coast of Great Britain and Norway in February - March. Typically, the reproductive products are released into the water, where the eggs are fertilized and develop. After their crushing, a free-swimming auricularium larva is formed. Many auricularia are relatively large in size - from 4 to 15 mm. In a number of sea cucumbers, the larvae, before becoming similar to the adult organism, go through one more larval barrel-shaped stage, the doliolaria, and then the last larval stage, called the pentactula. However, not all holothurians develop in this way. Nowadays, over 30 species of sea egg-pods are known that take care of their offspring and bear young. In such species, distributed mainly in cold waters, the free-swimming larval stage is lost and the eggs develop either due to a large amount of yolk or receiving nutrition directly from the mother's body. In the simplest case, eggs and young develop on the surface of the mother's body, for example, under the protection of overgrown skeletal plates, or in swollen skin folds on the back, or simply attached to the crawling sole. Further changes led to the formation of skin depressions, internal brood chambers protruding into the secondary body cavity, and in a number of branched-tentacled and legless holothurians - to the development of juveniles to late stages directly in the body cavity of the female. In all these cases, the sex of the holothurians is easily distinguishable, whereas usually this is almost impossible to do.
Giant California sea cucumber or sea cucumber Parastichopus californicus- a unique natural phenomenon. He uses the anus as a second mouth, despite the fact that he also has a real mouth.
Scientists previously knew that shallow-water marine invertebrates that live off the Pacific coast of North America use the anus for breathing. Since they do not have lungs, they use the water vascular system for breathing. ambulacral system, which consists of many channels running throughout the body. The branched sacs with which sea cucumbers breathe receive oxygen when water is pumped into the anus using the rectal muscles.
Giant sea cucumber
Half-meter-long sea cucumbers, which lead a predominantly sedentary lifestyle and are even permanent homes for some small inhabitants of the seabed, can pump up to 800 milliliters of water every hour. The body of these animals sifts out oxygen from the remaining components of sea water and saturates its cells with it.
Dr. William Jaeckle from Illinois Wesleyan University and Richard Strathmann from the University of Washington decided to study these amazing creatures in more detail.
They found that the system of blood vessels connecting the respiratory branched sacs with the intestines (the so-called rete mirabile), is not intended to transport oxygen to the intestines. From a scientific point of view, it would be more logical to assume that this structure is needed to transfer food from the anus to the intestines, and not vice versa, as is usually the case in animals. Zoologists decided to test their hypothesis.
To confirm their hypothesis, the researchers fed several giant sea cucumbers radioactive algae that contained iron particles. Using this trick, the team was able to trace the entire path that food takes through the echinoderm's body. In addition, radioactive particles accumulate in the part of the body where the opening through which the creatures consume food is located.
The results of the study demonstrated that sea cucumbers feed primarily through the mouth. But high concentrations of radioactive particles and iron were also observed in the structure of the rete mirabile, which proves that sea cucumbers use the anus as a second mouth. It turns out that the anus of these creatures performs three vital functions: respiratory, nutritional and excretory.
Scientists say that studying just one species of sea cucumber does not mean that only they use a bipolar method of feeding. Later, zoologists intend to study other species of echinoderms.
The study was published in the March issue of the journal Invertebrate Biology.
Among the numerous species of sea cucumbers, the most valuable for fishing are sea cucumber and cucumber. Sea cucumber and cucumber are similar in body structure and the chemical composition of the meat. Trepang contains biologically valuable substances (stimulants), for which in Eastern countries it is called the sea root of life (ginseng) and is widely recommended for those suffering from loss of physical strength and increased fatigue. Eating sea cucumber helps strengthen the nervous system. Sea cucumber fishing is carried out in spring and autumn only in the Far East. The caught sea cucumbers are cut up at the fishing site - the abdomen is cut and the entrails are removed. Cleaned sea cucumbers are washed and boiled for 2-3 hours until the meat becomes soft, after which it is used for preparing culinary dishes.
Skoblyanka with sea cucumber in tomato sauce.
Cut the boiled sea cucumbers into small pieces and fry in oil along with onion, flour and tomato paste. Mix everything, put it in a saucepan, add a little water and boil for 10-15 minutes over low heat.
400 g sea cucumbers, 3/4 cup oil, 3 onions, 4-5 tablespoons of tomato paste, 2 tbsp. spoons of flour, 4 tbsp. spoons of water, salt to taste.
Sea cucumbers fried with onions.
Chop the sea cucumbers and onions and fry them separately, then mix, add spices and serve hot. Sprinkle green onions on top.
400 g sea cucumbers, 2 heads of onions, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon allspice, 100 g green onions, salt to taste.
Stewed sea cucumbers.
Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the boiled sea cucumbers cut into pieces and simmer for 3 minutes. Add milk, salt, pepper and bring almost to a boil. Serve, garnished with red pepper.
250 g sea cucumbers, 4 tbsp. spoons of margarine or vegetable oil, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of milk, black pepper, red pepper, salt to taste.
Sea cucumbers with vegetables.
Cut the boiled sea cucumbers into pieces and fry. Chop fresh cabbage, chop vegetables (potatoes, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes) and mix with sea cucumbers, put in a saucepan and simmer over low heat until the vegetables are ready.
300 g sea cucumber, 1/4 fork fresh white cabbage, 3-4 pcs. potatoes, 1-2 carrots, 1-2 zucchini, 1 glass of oil, 2-3 tomatoes or 2 tbsp. spoons of tomato paste, pepper, sugar, salt to taste.
Trepangs stewed with chicken.
Place the boiled sea cucumbers in a bowl with boiled or fried chicken, season with the prepared sauce and simmer over low heat until cooked.
200-300 g sea cucumbers, 1/2 chicken. For the sauce: 1-2 tbsp. spoons of tomato puree, 1 tbsp. spoon of 3% vinegar, 2 tbsp. spoons of wine (port or Madeira), 2-3 tbsp. tablespoons butter, 1/2 cup meat broth.
Trepangs with horseradish.
Boiled sea cucumbers are cut into slices. Dilute the vinegar with water, add grated horseradish, salt, sugar and bring to a boil. Then pour in boiled, chopped sea cucumber slices. The dish is served cold.
Boiled sea cucumbers 70, table vinegar 40, grated horseradish 10, sugar 2, salt
Clean the sea cucumber and pour boiling water over it. After about 1 minute, drain the water and cut the sea cucumber into pieces.
Sauce: soy sauce 2 tbsp, garlic 3 cloves (squeeze), mayonnaise 1 tbsp. Mix all. Delicious.
Salad with sea cucumber.
Boiled sea cucumbers are cut into small pieces, boiled potatoes are cut into cubes, green peas, chopped eggs are added, lemon juice and salt are added. All products are mixed, then seasoned with mayonnaise and decorated with green salad and egg.
Boiled sea cucumber 80, potatoes 80, egg 0.5 pcs., green peas 40, mayonnaise sauce 40, lemon juice, salt.
The modern fauna is represented by 1,150 species, divided into 6 orders, which differ from each other in the shape of the tentacles and calcareous ring, as well as the presence of some internal organs. About 100 species are found in Russia. The oldest fossils of holothurians date from the Silurian period.
Biology
Unlike other echinoderms, holothurians lie “on their side” at the bottom, with the side bearing three rows of ambulacral legs ( trivium) is ventral, and the side with two rows of ambulacral legs ( bivium) dorsal. In deep-sea holothurians, the ambulacral legs can be greatly elongated and used as stilts. Some species move due to peristaltic contractions of the muscles of the body wall, pushing off from the ground with protruding calcareous bones.
Most sea cucumbers are black, brown or greenish in color. Body length varies from 3 cm to 1-2 meters, although one species ( Synapta maculata) reaches 5 m. 
Lifestyle and nutrition
Holothurians are sedentary or crawling animals found in almost any part of the ocean - from the coastal strip to deep-sea depressions; most abundant in tropical coral reef environments. Most species are bottom-dwelling, but there are also pelagic ones. They usually lie “on their side”, raising the front, oral end. Holothurians feed on plankton and organic debris extracted from bottom silt and sand, which is passed through the digestive canal. Other species filter food from bottom waters with tentacles covered with sticky mucus.
In case of severe irritation, the back part of the intestine is thrown out through the anus along with the water lungs, scaring off or distracting the attackers; Lost organs are quickly restored. In some species, Cuvier's tubules containing toxins are also released. Sea cucumbers are hunted by sea stars, gastropods, fish and crustaceans. Fish called fieraspheres ( Fierasfer), sometimes pea crabs ( Pinnotheres).
Reproduction and development
Sex organ ( gonad) unpaired, in the form of a bundle of finger-shaped tubes. Fertilization of the egg and development of the embryo in most species is external. Some holothurians catch eggs with tentacles and attach them to the dorsal side of the body; in rare cases, embryos develop in a body cavity.
Life expectancy is from 5 to 10 years.
Economic importance
Some species of sea cucumbers, especially from the genera Stychopus And Cucumaria, are eaten as “trepangs”. Their fishing is most developed off the coast of Japan, China, the Malay Archipelago and in the South Pacific Ocean. Sea cucumbers are also fished in the Russian Far East.
Toxins produced by sea cucumbers are of pharmacological interest. Fishermen on the Pacific Islands use poisonous Cuvier's tubules of some species when fishing.
see also
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Notes
Literature
- Dolmatov I. Yu., Mashanov V. S. Regeneration in holothurians. - Vladivostok: Dalnauka, 2007. - 208 p.
- Kalinin V. I., Levin V. S., Stonik V. A. Chemical morphology: triterpene glycosides from holothurians (Holothurioidea, Echinodermata). - Vladivostok: Dalnauka, 1994. - 284 p.
An excerpt characterizing Holothurians
"Sonya?" she thought, looking at the sleeping, curled up cat with her huge braid. “No, where should she go!” She is virtuous. She fell in love with Nikolenka and doesn’t want to know anything else. Mom doesn’t understand either. It’s amazing how smart I am and how... she’s sweet,” she continued, speaking to herself in the third person and imagining that some very smart, smartest and nicest man was talking about her... “Everything, everything is in her.” , - continued this man, - she is unusually smart, sweet and then good, unusually good, dexterous, swims, rides excellently, and has a voice! One might say, an amazing voice!” She sang her favorite musical phrase from the Cherubini Opera, threw herself on the bed, laughed with the joyful thought that she was about to fall asleep, shouted to Dunyasha to put out the candle, and before Dunyasha had time to leave the room, she had already passed into another, even happier world of dreams , where everything was as easy and wonderful as in reality, but it was only even better, because it was different.The next day, the countess, inviting Boris to her place, talked with him, and from that day he stopped visiting the Rostovs.
On December 31, on New Year's Eve 1810, le reveillon [night supper], there was a ball at Catherine's nobleman's house. The diplomatic corps and the sovereign were supposed to be at the ball.
On the Promenade des Anglais, the famous house of a nobleman glowed with countless lights. At the illuminated entrance with a red cloth stood the police, and not only gendarmes, but the police chief at the entrance and dozens of police officers. The carriages drove off, and new ones drove up with red footmen and footmen with feathered hats. Men in uniforms, stars and ribbons came out of the carriages; ladies in satin and ermine carefully stepped down the noisily laid down steps, and hurriedly and silently walked along the cloth of the entrance.
Almost every time a new carriage arrived, there was a murmur in the crowd and hats were taken off.
“Sovereign?... No, minister... prince... envoy... Don’t you see the feathers?...” said from the crowd. One of the crowd, better dressed than the others, seemed to know everyone, and called by name the most noble nobles of that time.
Already one third of the guests had arrived at this ball, and the Rostovs, who were supposed to be at this ball, were still hastily preparing to dress.
There was a lot of talk and preparation for this ball in the Rostov family, a lot of fears that the invitation would not be received, the dress would not be ready, and everything would not work out as needed.
Along with the Rostovs, Marya Ignatievna Peronskaya, a friend and relative of the countess, a thin and yellow maid of honor of the old court, leading the provincial Rostovs in the highest St. Petersburg society, went to the ball.
At 10 o'clock in the evening the Rostovs were supposed to pick up the maid of honor at the Tauride Garden; and yet it was already five minutes to ten, and the young ladies were not yet dressed.
Natasha was going to the first big ball in her life. That day she got up at 8 o'clock in the morning and was in feverish anxiety and activity all day. All her strength, from the very morning, was aimed at ensuring that they all: she, mother, Sonya were dressed in the best possible way. Sonya and the Countess trusted her completely. The countess was supposed to be wearing a masaka velvet dress, the two of them were wearing white smoky dresses on pink, silk covers with roses in the bodice. The hair had to be combed a la grecque [in Greek].
Everything essential had already been done: the legs, arms, neck, ears were already especially carefully, like a ballroom, washed, perfumed and powdered; they were already wearing silk, fishnet stockings and white satin shoes with bows; the hairstyles were almost finished. Sonya finished dressing, and so did the Countess; but Natasha, who was working for everyone, fell behind. She was still sitting in front of the mirror with a peignoir draped over her slender shoulders. Sonya, already dressed, stood in the middle of the room and, pressing painfully with her small finger, pinned the last ribbon that squealed under the pin.
“Not like that, not like that, Sonya,” said Natasha, turning her head away from her hair and grabbing the hair with her hands, which the maid who was holding it did not have time to let go. - Not like that, come here. – Sonya sat down. Natasha cut the tape differently.
“Excuse me, young lady, you can’t do this,” said the maid holding Natasha’s hair.
- Oh, my God, well, later! That's it, Sonya.
-Are you coming soon? – the countess’s voice was heard, “it’s already ten.”
- Now. -Are you ready, mom?
- Just pin the current.
“Don’t do it without me,” Natasha shouted, “you won’t be able to!”
- Yes, ten.
It was decided to be at the ball at half past ten, and Natasha still had to get dressed and stop by the Tauride Garden.
Having finished her hair, Natasha, in a short skirt, from which her ballroom shoes were visible, and in her mother’s blouse, ran up to Sonya, examined her and then ran to her mother. Turning her head, she pinned the current, and, barely having time to kiss her gray hair, again ran to the girls who were hemming her skirt.
The issue was Natasha's skirt, which was too long; Two girls were hemming it, hastily biting the threads. The third, with pins in her lips and teeth, ran from the Countess to Sonya; the fourth held her entire smoky dress on her raised hand.
- Mavrusha, rather, my dear!
- Give me a thimble from there, young lady.
- Soon, finally? - said the count, entering from behind the door. - Here's some perfume for you. Peronskaya is already tired of waiting.
“It’s ready, young lady,” said the maid, lifting the hemmed smoky dress with two fingers and blowing and shaking something, expressing with this gesture an awareness of the airiness and purity of what she was holding.
Natasha began to put on her dress.
Sea cucumber (Holothuroidea) or Holothuria, belongs to the class of invertebrate animals. They can be found in almost any part of the ocean. The body of the sea cucumber can be completely smooth, or covered with numerous long growths similar to thorns or needles. Sea cucumber meat contains a number of useful elements from the periodic table. It has enormous potential in the treatment of various diseases, including cancer. Used in many cooking recipes.
Photo of animal Trepang sea cucumber
Camera: Samsung Galaxy S8
Camera: Samsung Galaxy S8
Description of the animal Trepang sea cucumber
Trepang has an elongated oval-shaped body, which is why it got the name sea cucumber. There are many types of sea cucumbers, they all differ in shape, size and color. One species of this animal can reach five meters in length. Their usual size is up to half a meter and weighs about one and a half kilograms. The body of the mollusk may be rough or have projections very similar to spines. The sea cucumber's mouth is not suitable for chewing or crushing food. The sea cucumber has tentacles around its mouth. Their number can reach 30. With the help of these tentacles, the animal collects nutritional material from the bottom of the sea (including decomposing biomaterials that settle on the bottom). It is impossible to separate food from sand, so the animal’s belly is often filled with earth or sand. Cucumbers prefer the calm water of coral reefs or bays protected from storms and large waves. The animals move along the bottom according to the principle of a caterpillar, they pull their back part forward, the middle part bends in an arc, after which the front part of the creature is thrown forward.
Some types of sea cucumbers, when touched, shrink into a ball (bumpy), this is the protective function of this animal. For this they are sometimes called egg-pods. If a sea cucumber is cut in half, this will not lead to its death. Within six months or more, the animal can recover as a result of regeneration. And what’s surprising is that both parts can be restored, that is, after regeneration, you get two animals.
Animal prey Trepang sea cucumber
Sea cucumber is a desirable catch for fisherman. The use of sea cucumber in medicine and cooking cannot be underestimated. The body of sea cucumber contains a huge amount of useful elements and substances (organic acids and mineral salts). Meat can have an invigorating effect on the human body, while strengthening the immune system and killing harmful bacteria in the human body. The taste of sea cucumber is very tender and resembles sturgeon meat.
Sea cucumbers belong to invertebrate animals of the echinoderm type, in general, to mollusks. The currently existing 1,150 species, included in 6 orders, differ in appearance, color, shape of tentacles and rings, as well as internal structure. The closest relatives are sea urchins and stars. In Russia there are about 100 species of these worm-like animals, the most popular of which are the Far Eastern sea cucumber and Japanese sea cucumber (cucumaria), from which delicious and healthy dishes are prepared.
Appearance of sea cucumber sea cucumber
Sea cucumber holothuria is a unique inhabitant of the underwater world. It looks like both a large, clumsy caterpillar and a huge worm. The soft body of these invertebrate animals, depending on the species, can be rough or smooth, and can be covered with long or short outgrowths. Representatives of sea cucumbers are colored black, brown, green, gray or red. Sea cucumbers, depending on the species, also differ in size, which varies from 0.5 centimeters to 5 meters, which makes them attractive to sea hunters.
The sea cucumber, the photo of which is presented, is slow and crawls leisurely, alternately stretching and contracting. In their normal state, cucumbers lie on one side, which makes them much easier to catch.
Medicinal properties of sea cucumbers
The sterility of the meat, the complete absence of viruses or diseases, the huge iodine content - all this is a sea cucumber. The medicinal properties of the product allow it to be used as a natural remedy for quick recovery after illness or surgery. Eastern doctors prescribe delicious trephine meat to accelerate tissue regeneration, stimulate the heart muscle, lower blood pressure, normalize metabolic processes and even get rid of tachycardia and bradycardia.
Another beneficial property of sea cucumber is its healing effect on joints, which is used in the treatment of arthritis. Substances contained in the meat of marine life can relieve pain and reduce joint stiffness.
Sea cucumber extract, obtained according to a unique recipe from oriental medicine, has become widely popular. Sea cucumber extract has exactly the same beneficial medicinal properties as its fresh meat. It is especially recommended to be used as a dietary supplement by older people and those who suffer from chronic diseases. Chinese doctors claim that the extract saturates the body with a complex of essential elements, improves immunity, the functioning of the cardiovascular and nervous systems, and prolongs life. Cucumaria sea cucumber tissue contains vitamins C and B, calcium, phosphorus, iodine, chlorine and amino sugars. Toxic substances holothurins are widely used in pharmacology.
Thus, the delicious meat of marine invertebrate animals is an excellent raw material for the production of unique medicinal extracts, as well as extracts, on the basis of which medicines are made. They also prepare delicious salads from sea cucumber and eat it as an independent dish (fried, stewed or canned).
Using sea cucumber as food
Some types of sea cucumber, also called sea cucumbers, are eaten and considered real delicacies. Fishing for invertebrate animals is carried out off the coast of China, Japan and in the south Pacific Ocean, in Russia - in the Far East.
Sea cucumber (you can choose the cooking recipe to suit your taste) can be fried, dried, or canned. This is an incredibly tasty and healthy product. One “but”: it becomes tasty only when cooked with some aromatic products, since they absorb odors perfectly. The Japanese eat it raw, believing that it gives a general strengthening and healing effect. Indeed, the sea animal contains vitamins, beneficial amino acids and trace elements.
Fresh sea cucumber appetizer
Thoroughly cleaned and washed sea cucumber is cut into small pieces, poured with soy sauce and seasoned with garlic to taste. Marinate for 5 minutes. One large sea cucumber is enough for a whole company of six people.
Chinese recipes from boiled sea cucumber
- Trepang (sea cucumber), the photo of which is presented below, is boiled in boiling water. For the finished dish, they are cut into slices and sprinkled with carrot sauce.
- Sea cucumber makes a very tasty soup if you add fragrant Chinese mushrooms and young bamboo shoots to it. This is a super healthy food.
- Dried sea cucumbers are pre-soaked for several hours and then boiled and used in salads or snacks.
Recipe for sea cucumber with vegetables
Soak two boiled frozen cucumbers in cold water for 20 minutes.
Rinse thoroughly and cut into 2.5 centimeter thick pieces.
Fill a deep saucepan halfway with water and place over medium heat.
Peel 100 g of ginger root, cut into cubes and place in a saucepan.
When the water boils, place the sea cucumbers there for 2 minutes, then drain in a colander and place in a dry container.
Peel and cut 2 carrots and 2 onions into thin strips, also chop 200-300 g of cabbage.
Separately cut 200 g of smoked brisket into cubes.
Place a frying pan with 3 tbsp on medium heat. oil and add cabbage, simmer for 15 minutes.
Add a little water to prevent it from burning, pepper and add the smoked brisket, simmer, stirring, for 15 minutes.
In another frying pan, fry in 3 tbsp. oil onions and carrots, add finely chopped green onions and parsley (3 feathers each), sea cucumbers, simmer for 5 minutes.
When the cabbage becomes translucent, add the mixture from the second pan, sprinkle with sesame seeds and cover with a lid. Stirring occasionally, cook the dish for 10-15 minutes over low heat. Add a little salt and let it brew for 5-7 minutes. Served hot with hot sauces.
Sea cucumber caviar recipe
Boiled sea cucumber is ground in a large meat grinder.
Onions are chopped, carrots are grated.
Sea cucumber with vegetables is stewed for 15 minutes in a frying pan in oil, you can add fresh tomatoes or pasta. Salt and pepper to taste. Can be seasoned with soy sauce.
"Skoblyanka" from sea cucumber
Salt is fried in a frying pan, 100 g of vegetable oil is added and 2 onions, cut into rings, are fried.
Boiled sea cucumber is cut crosswise into rings and added to the pan with onions.
After a couple of minutes, add two large tomatoes cut into slices or two spoons of tomato paste, salt, and ground black pepper.
Let it boil for a few minutes, turn off the heat, and cool. Squeeze a clove of garlic and let it brew under the lid.
You can often find dried sea cucumbers on sale, covered with black coal dust - this protects them from spoilage. To prepare a dish from such a shellfish, you must first soak it in cold water for two days, periodically replacing the water. But the sea cucumber will increase several times in volume. Before subjecting it to heat treatment, the abdomen is cut and cleaned of entrails.
Cook the sea cucumber for 2-3 hours until soft. And then you can use it to prepare hodgepodge, cabbage soup, all kinds of salads, appetizers, vegetable casseroles and other dishes. Whatever you choose as a culinary experiment, you will be satisfied in any case!
Holothuria is an unusual animal that visually resembles a plant. This animal belongs to the class of invertebrates, the type of echinoderm. These “sea sausages”, which is exactly what they look like, have many names - sea cucumber, sea cucumber, sea ginseng.
Class Holothuria unites many species, namely 1150. Each species differs from other representatives of this class in a number of characteristics. Therefore everything holothurian species were combined into 6 types. The criteria that were taken into account during separation were the following: anatomical, external and genetic features. So, let's get acquainted with the types of sea cucumbers:
1. Legless holothurians do not have ambulacral legs. Unlike their other relatives, they perfectly tolerate desalination of water, which has affected their habitat. A large number of legless ones can be found in the mangrove swamps of the Ras Mohamed Nature Reserve.
2. Side-footed holothurians are equipped with ambulacral legs on the sides. They prefer life at great depths.
3. Barrel-shaped holothurians. The shape of their body is spindle-shaped. Such type of holothurian adapted to life in the soil.
4. Tree-tentacled holothurians are the most common. The most primitive sea cucumbers belong to this type.
5. Thyroid-tentacles have short tentacles that do not hide inside the body.
6. Dactylochirotids unite sea cucumbers that have from 8 to 30 tentacles.
Holothuria maritime, due to its diversity and ability to adapt to any living conditions, is found in almost all seas. The only exceptions are the Caspian and Baltic seas.
The ocean spaces are also perfect for their living. Largest accumulation holothurian sea cucumber in tropical and subtropical waters. These cucumbers can settle both in shallow water and in deep-sea depressions. Their main refuge is coral reefs and rocky soils overgrown with vegetation.
The body of these underwater inhabitants is oblong, which is probably why they are called sea cucumbers. The skin is rough and wrinkled. All muscles are quite developed. At one end of the body there is a mouth, and at the other an anus. There are tentacles around the mouth.
With their help, sea ginseng captures food and sends it into the mouth. They swallow food completely, since they have no teeth. Nature did not endow these monsters with a brain, and the nervous system consists of only a few nerves connected in a bundle.
Holothuria sea cucumber
Distinctive feature sea cucumber sea ginseng is their hydraulic system. The water lungs of these extraordinary animals open in front of the anus into the cloaca, which is completely unusual for other living organisms.
The color of these animals is quite bright. They come in black, red, blue and green. Skin color depends on where holothurian lives. Their color most often harmoniously combines with the colors of the underwater landscape. The sizes of such “underwater worms” have no clear boundaries. They can be from 5 mm to 5 m.
Character and lifestyle of sea cucumbers
Lifestyle of sea cucumbers- inactive. They are in no hurry and crawl slower than turtles. They move along the seabed on their sides, since this is where their legs are located.
Pictured is sea cucumber sea ginseng
You can see such an unusual way of transportation at photo of sea cucumber. During such walks, they use their tentacles to capture edible particles of organic matter from the bottom.
They feel great at great depths. So, at a depth of 8 km, sea ginseng considers itself a full-fledged owner, and this is not accidental. They make up 90% of all bottom dwellers at great depths.
But even these “bottom masters” have their enemies. Holothurians have to defend themselves from starfish, crustaceans and some species. To protect themselves, sea cucumbers use “special weapons.” In case of danger, they can shrink and throw their internal organs into the water.
As a rule, these are the intestines and genitals. Thus, the enemy is lost or feasts on this “dropped ballast”, and in the meantime the front part of the cucumber escapes from the battlefield. All missing body parts are restored in 1.5-5 weeks and the sea cucumber continues to live as before.
Some species defend themselves slightly differently. During skirmishes with the enemy, they produce toxic enzymes that are fatal to many fish.
This substance is not dangerous for people, the main thing is that it does not get into your eyes. People have adapted to use this substance for their own purposes: for fishing and scaring.
In addition to enemies, sea ginseng also has friends. About 27 species of the carp family use sea cucumbers as a home. They live inside these unusual animals, using them as shelter in case of danger.
Sometimes these “cucumber fish” eat the reproductive and respiratory organs of sea cucumbers, but due to their restorative ability, this does not cause much harm to the “hosts”.
Holothuria edible not only underwater inhabitants, but also people believe. Sea cucumbers are used to prepare delicacies, as well as in pharmacology. They are tasteless, but very healthy.
An interesting fact is that once you get the sea cucumber to the surface, you must sprinkle it with salt so that it becomes hard. Otherwise, upon contact with air, the mollusk will soften and resemble jelly.
Holothurian nutrition
Sea cucumbers are considered the orderlies of the ocean and seas. They feed on the remains of dead animals. Their mouth end is always raised in order to catch food with the help of tentacles.
The number of tentacles varies among different species. Their maximum number is 30 pieces, and they are all in constant search of food. The holothurian licks each of the tentacles in turn.
Some species feed on algae, others on organic debris and small animals. They are like vacuum cleaners, collecting food mixed with silt and sand from the bottom. The intestines of these animals are adapted to select only nutrients, and send everything unnecessary back out.
Reproduction and lifespan of holothurians
Holothurians have 2 methods of reproduction: sexual and asexual. During sexual reproduction, the female releases eggs into the water. Here, outside, fertilization of the eggs occurs.
After a while, larvae will emerge from the eggs. In their development, these babies go through 3 stages: dipleurula, auricularia and doliolaria. In the first month of their life, the larvae feed exclusively on unicellular algae.
The second option for reproduction is self-reproduction. In this case, holothurians, like plants, are divided into several parts. Over time, new individuals grow from these parts. These extraordinary creatures can live from 5 to 10 years.
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