Surveillance study on the most common sea-cucumbers in some Egyptian coasts

Abstract

Sea cucumbers depletion has become a threat to Egypt because of the extreme harvesting and utility of sea cucumbers for their direct value as food and as source for bioactive products. Therefore, it is necessary to have an updated overview about the current available species in Egyptian fauna, including distribution, anatomy and morphological analysis. Six species of sea-cucumbers were collected from Egyptian coasts (Mediterranean and Red Seas). One of these species, namely Holothuria polii is collected from Mediterranean Sea coasts (Abu-Qir and Miami regions, Alexandria) while, the other five species were found in Hurghada shores. The collected species were identified and separated according to morphometric analysis. The variation of morphological characters between collected samples and their distribution along Egyptian coasts were discussed. The obtained results revealed that Holothuria leucospilota, Holothuria edulis, Bohadschia marmorata and Actinopyga mauritiana can emit fine sticky mass named Cuvierian tubules from their anus while, Holothuria atra and Holothuria polii lack this tubule. In addition, there is a significant difference between Actinopyga mauritiana and other genera in the presence of five distinct teeth around the anus.