Abstract
Purple sea urchins and giant California sea cucumbers are becoming increasingly important sources of food and marine pharmaceuticals. Because there have been many fisheries established to harvest these species, many of them have been greatly depleted. In order to alleviate this problem intensive aquaculture is generating interest as a solution. However, when an animal is placed into an artificial system, there are a variety of stresses that it can encounter, such as salinity changes or handling. In order to determine which species is more susceptible to stress, various physiological and immunological assays were done on the coelomic fluid of purple sea urchins, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus and giant California sea cucumbers, Parastichopus californicus. Assays included total and phagocytic cell counts, phagocytic capacity, and lytic activity. Our results indicated that low salinity and handling both cause significant stress responses in sea urchins. For sea cucumbers, there were few significant differences from the control, and no differences in immune function. These results indicate that in an aquaculture environment the purple sea urchin is more likely to be stressed compared to the giant California sea cucumber, and that facilities interested in raising sea urchins should be particularly careful to avoid any condition that is potentially stressful.
Highlights
Invertebrates such as sea urchins and sea cucumbers have been widely consumed throughout Asia for centuries and are of growing importance as a resource in the United States
The sea urchin phagocytic cell count showed a significant increase in the stress groups as compared to the control group (Fig. 3), with the control group at approximately 2 x 106 cells per ml, the low salinity exposed group at approximately 5 x 106 cells per ml, and the handling exposed group at approximately 7 x 106 cells per ml
The sea cucumber phagocytic cell count showed no significant differences between groups, with all below 2 x 106 cells per ml (Fig. 4)
Summary
Invertebrates such as sea urchins and sea cucumbers have been widely consumed throughout Asia for centuries and are of growing importance as a resource in the United States. They are both a source of high quality protein and of valuable pharmaceuticals, especially sea cucumbers which are being found to have a variety of anticancer and regenerative properties, as having many other valuable medical and pharmaceutical attributes [1]. Sea urchins have long been used as a research model, and as a food source are considered a delicacy [2, 3] Due to these various factors, the natural population has become the source of a growing fishery system [2]. One way is to establish inland intensive aquaculture facilities that avoid the problems associated with raising animals off of the coast, loss to predation [7]
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