sea cucumbers are fascinating group of marine animals
they live chiefly among corals but are also found among rocks and muddy and sandy flats
they can see near the sore and in deep sea
they occur in
all color combinations: white, black,
red, blue, green, yellow, violet etc.
The Chinese,
Japanese and Koreans consider them
a delicacy
The Chinese consume
them in processed form while the
Japanese and the Koreans consume
Apostichopus japonicus, fresh.
The
toxins of sea cucumbers have
antiviral, antitumoral, anticancerous
and antifertility properties and find
use in the pharmaceutical industry.
Some species like Pseudocnus
echinatus are fed to ducks in China.
At present nearly 1 400 species
of sea cucumbers are known from all
the seas in the world. Of these only
15 species are used for processing at
present. There are nearly 200 known
species in the seas around India, most
of them in deep waters
