Orange Sea Cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa)
Orange Sea Cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa)
Common name: orange sea cucumber
Scientific name: Cucumaria miniata
Locations: shallow waters of the coast, attached to rocks, in cracks and crevices
Seasonality: available all year
Color: Dark, brown, tan, maroon, purple, with lateral lines of orange feet and feeding structure
Size: 4” - 8”
Collected: by hand
Quantity: sold by the each
Tidepool Tim says, “Sea pickles! These sea cukes range in natural colored body tissues with lateral orange tube feet which line their bodies and concentrate around the mouth for feeding. This creature is quite well known and it’s currently the only commercially important sea cucumber along Maine’s shore. They sustain themselves on phytoplankton and organic detritus. When cukes sense danger, they retract their active feeding “tentacles” and contract into a football shape. Once taken out of the water, they expel water and flatten out.”