Pale Sea Cucumber (Cucumaria pallida)

Description: The pale sea cucumber, pallid cucumber, or Cucumaria pallida (pallida meaning “pale”) is an echinoderm! This makes it a relative to marine creatures like sea stars, sea urchins, and sand dollars. The body of the pale sea cucumber is lined with five rows of soft, retractable, little tube feet and ten long, wispy tentacles and can grow 25 centimeters long.

Habitat: This species of sea cucumber is found from southern Alaska to southern California and lives amongst rocks and cobble in the lower intertidal zone down to about 90 meters underwater.

Diet: The pale sea cucumber uses these tentacles to catch food, like plankton, and then push the food into its mouth. 

Tide Pool Tidbits:

• This species used to be considered the same as the orange sea cucumber (Cucumaria miniata) but a paler form. Turns out, these two species are actually quite different, both in their external and internal morphology (AKA the forms of their structures).

Reference: Central Coast Biodiversity