Pigs in Space

Saturday-Sunday, July 19-20, 2025

Pigs in Space

Today’s special animal friends are the sea pigs, three species of sea cucumbers in the genus Scotoplanes. Sea cucumbers form the class Holothuroidea and are collectively known as “holothurians.” (Not a band.) Sea pigs live on the ocean floor at depths up to 16,400 feet. They eat organic debris such as bits of decaying whale carcasses. Their sense of smell draws them in their hundreds — a group is called a “trawl” — when something freshly dead hits the bottom.

They aren’t as horrible as they look, because they are only 4 to 6 inches long. They have six pairs of tube feet and ten little tentacles by the mouth. The feet, the tentacles, and the extensions on their backs, “dorsal papillae,” have water-filled tubes which help them withstand water pressure and allow them to move by decreasing or shifting water internally. They breathe through their anal opening using a very simple, undivided respiratory organ.

Each sea pig is either male or female, and each has one gonad: females have one ovary, and males have one testis. Individuals release eggs or sperm into the water where they meet up and produce a zygote, which sinks to the bottom and grows. It is believed that chemical signals attract the eggs and sperm to one another, somehow. Nature is way weird.

Sea pigs can host a number of parasites that live in their innards, including worms and snails. Other sea animals live on or around sea pigs. Juvenile crabs have been observed taking shelter beneath them, and others ride along with them, possibly helping to deter predators, because it’s harder to eat a mushy thing if it has a prickly thing on it.

Sea pigs are found in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans as well as in the Antarctic. They have not been evaluated by IUCN. Marine biologists consider them to be numerous and not in need of protection.