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Sea Cucumber
This sea cucumber, or holothurian, was seen perched on polymetallic nodules during Dive 09 of the 2026 Cook Islands ROV Exploration cruise. Sea cucumbers are considered deposit feeders, feeding on nutrients attached to sediments on the seafloor. They use their modified tube feet to “eat” seafloor mud, extracting what little nutrition may have persisted after slowly sinking from the productive upper ocean, and then expelling undigested mud. The sea cucumber in this image has a rather full gut!