Giant Black Cucumaria – feeding!

By on

What’s a “Giant Black Cucumaria”? It’s an extraordinary species of sea cucumber that has a football-shaped body and can be up to 30 cm long. Below I have a video of one feeding.

The Giant Black Cucumaria I documented for 4 months. Photographer here with my dive buddy, Natasha Dickinson.


I had never seen one before January of this year. I was able to document that one it in the same place over a period of 4 months. I never saw that individual with its feeding tentacles out.


But then, in April, I chanced upon another individual in a different location near northeast Vancouver Island. This one was feeding! In my video below, see how the Giant Black Cucumaria collects plankton on 10 bushy tentacles, sticks one in its mouth, and scrapes off food. Then, repeat with another tentacle. Yum!

This is also how some other species of sea cucumber feed e.g. Orange Sea Cucumbers (Cucumaria miniata).

More about Giant Black Cucumaria:

The two individuals I documented were near northeast Vancouver Island.

From “Sea Cucumbers of British Columbia, Southeast Alaska and Puget Sound” by Phil Lambert, I learned that the species is known to be more abundant further to the north along British Columbia’s Central Coast into Alaska and the Arctic Ocean.

The Giant Black Cucumaria has been assigned the scientific name “Cucumaria frondosa japonica” but its species status is not resolved. It’s believe to be closely related to Cucumaria japonica found near Japan.

The individual I documented for 4 months. May have been there longer. But when I returned after 5 months, it was no longer there.

Photos and video here were taken in the Traditional Territories of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw ©Jackie Hildering, The Marine Detective.

You can find more information about this species in the Electronic Atlas of the Wildlife of British Columbia

Leave a comment