Videos of Sea Cucumbers doin' Sexy' Swimmin' Crawly STUFF' !

I have some good stuff coming up, but this week got away from me.. So in the meantime, here's some neat sea cucumber videos that I've been meaning to share....

A giant holothurian doin some kinda sexy thing! There is some gamete emission towards the end and is kind of understated, so keep your eyes open...



Here is a nice compilation of deep-sea marine invertebrates from off Kona, HI shot by the NOAA Okeanos Explorer... Some fantastic hi-def video of the swimming sea cucumber Paelopatides from 0:28 to 0:45 into the video.. The rest of it is mostly not echinoderms, but also interesting...


And finally, if you want to see some MORE neat deep-sea sea cucumber goodness! Go HERE for footage from the Indonesian deep-sea INDEX 2010 expedition video...

A giant synaptid sea cucumber (identified as Synapta maculata) on the move!


Not sure where this video was shot, but possibly the Indo-Pacific..


...and video of another sea cucumber feeding. You can see the tentacles moving food into the mouth.. From Lembeh Straits in Indonesia.



And of course, where would we be without watching sea cucumbers POOP!?

Sunflower Starfish Video Day! aka Pycnopodia Power!

(image courtesy of Allison Gong!)

Its been awhile since I've had a chance to share some cool starfish videos and there's some awesome new sunflower star video on YouTube!

1. The "mound" of moving Pycnopodia helianthoides ! A video from the Vancouver Aquarium. Research diver Donna Gibbs was out and observed this spectacular spectacle. I dont' think I've ever seen a huge aggregate of sunflower stars like this before! Literally climbing over each other in high densities. The Vancouver Aquarium folks speculate on temperature or red tides as the cause..I wonder if it might be some kind of odd reproductive behavior. Anyway...its weird and spectacular!


2. Sunflower stars battlin it out! Nuff said!


3. Sunflower star TIME LAPSE turn over. If you don't love watching starfish time lapse-then you have become TIRED OF LIFE!!!


4. Sunflower Stars VERSUS the SCALLOPS!! Watch the Godzilla of starfish terrorize a bunch of hapless bivalves! ha! Silly Scallops!! Watch them RUN!


5. Finally... there's always THIS favorite... Sunflower star clears out the hapless brittle stars and sand dollars around it! THAT is who's boss! All to a hip soundtrack of Vivaldi's Four Seasons!