# Identify these sea creatures? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 20, 2005, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057 "2005-06-20T15:24:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057/21 "2005-06-21T01:42:06Z")
Ok, **tdn,** lets do this. Look at my 1st & 2nd links- pics of Sea cucumbers. Does #3 look like any of them? Then look at my last link- this lists just about every common sea animal you might see. Which did #3 look most like? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057/22 "2005-06-21T13:00:45Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Ok, **tdn,** lets do this. Look at my 1st & 2nd links- pics of Sea cucumbers. Does #3 look like any of them? Then look at my last link- this lists just about every common sea animal you might see. Which did #3 look most like? None of them. It most looked like [this](http://www.starfish.ch/photos/echinoderms-Stachelhauter/seacucumbers-Seewalzen/Bohadschia-argus.jpg), but only in the way that Portia DiRossi looks like Charles Durning. What I saw lacked the mottled pattern and opacity of the linked critter. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057/23 "2005-06-21T13:02:29Z")
Oh, and my #2 object most looked like [this](http://www.dnr.state.sc.us/marine/sertc/images/photo%20gallery/Acanthilia_intermedia.jpg), only black and fuzzy. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057/24 "2005-06-21T13:57:31Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > None of them. It most looked like [this](http://www.starfish.ch/photos/echinoderms-Stachelhauter/seacucumbers-Seewalzen/Bohadschia-argus.jpg), but only in the way that Portia DiRossi looks like Charles Durning. What I saw lacked the mottled pattern and opacity of the linked critter. I suspect that what you are actually seeing is a mass of gelatinous or slimy exudate from some plant or animal, not the organism itself. This is based on the thing’s translucency, appearence of being about to disintegrate, the difference in shape between the two that you describe, and lack of movement. Did these things have any appendages, tube feet, eyes, tentacles, or other discrete features? Or were they featureless and smooth? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2005, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057/25 "2005-06-21T16:32:23Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > None of them. It most looked like but only in the way that Portia DiRossi looks like Charles Durning. What I saw lacked the mottled pattern and opacity of the linked critter. Hmm- _could_ be a Sea Cucumber, but it also could be just about anything. Find another and examine it, willya? Yep, your crab looks like a species of \*Loxorhynchus. \* They have lots of common names, don’t know which name they go by out there, or even if that’s the exact same genus, we call them “Sheep crab”. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057/26 "2005-06-22T03:08:41Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Hmm- _could_ be a Sea Cucumber, Nope. It doesn’t have any features suggesting it is a sea cucumber, and it has several features (which I have already mentioned) that indicate it is not. One thing it is not is a sea cucumber. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057/27 "2005-06-22T03:30:27Z")
I’m starting to think it might be a sea cucumber. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057/28 "2005-06-22T03:41:57Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > I’m starting to think it might be a sea cucumber. Why? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057/29 "2005-06-22T05:14:08Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Nope. It doesn’t have any features suggesting it is a sea cucumber, and it has several features (which I have already mentioned) that indicate it is not. One thing it is not is a sea cucumber. Well, the OP picked a pic of a Sea Cucumber as something that it is closest too, but I admit it isn’t a good match. And your two points were that Sea cucumbers weren’t translucent- which they certainly can be- and that they aren’t fragile. But they often _look_ fragile. Honestly, I am stumped. The description is so vague and covers so many possibles that I am simply unwilling to rule out a whole Class of thousands of _extremely_ highly varied species. I cheerfully admit that it is _likely_ not a Sea Cucumber. But I am not going to rule out the Holothuroidea, until we know more. Could be a Tunicate, could be a Jelly, could be a worm, could be lots if things, even something no longer “alive”. I also agree that “many summers beachcombing on the northeastern coast of the US” would make you certain that this is not the “Sea Cucumber” you know from the Intertidal region. But this is a diver, who gets deeper. Until we know more, my mind is open. Maybe it’ll remain a mystery. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057/30 "2005-06-22T14:01:26Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I also agree that “many summers beachcombing on the northeastern coast of the US” would make you certain that this is not the “Sea Cucumber” you know from the Intertidal region. But this is a diver, who gets deeper. Wrong. He says he was snorkeling. That means he was in relatively shallow water. I have seen the kind of objects he describes, and they are certainly not sea cucumbers. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057/31 "2005-06-22T15:13:26Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Wrong. He says he was snorkeling. That means he was in relatively shallow water. Wrong. It’s entirely possible to snorkel in deep water. It’s possible that what I found was 30 feet down. The fact that I was in, oh, maybe 3 feet of water has nothing to do with it. 😉 I hope to be back at that same beach (or a similar one) this coming weekend. I’ll try to gather a bit more information then. Hopefully I’ll see more of those things. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057/32 "2005-06-22T15:53:35Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Wrong. It’s entirely possible to snorkel in deep water. It’s possible that what I found was 30 feet down. The fact that I was in, oh, maybe 3 feet of water has nothing to do with it. 😉 Although not intertidal, 30 feet is not “deep water.” You are not normally be going to be finding any exotic deep-sea animals there. ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057/33 "2005-06-22T16:16:35Z")
For #3, I’m gonna go with tube worm (in anoxic conditions, they look like piles of crap). [http://www.njscuba.net/biology/sw\_plant-like.html#SlimeFanWorm](http://www.njscuba.net/biology/sw_plant-like.html#SlimeFanWorm) In fact that whole site ([http://www.njscuba.net/biology/](http://www.njscuba.net/biology/)) may be of great interest to you. If they’re not tubeworms, check out the other invertebrate pages or even the algae and plants pages. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-these-sea-creatures/309057.md?page=1)