Sea cucumber

Sea cucumber , trepang , sea cucumber , or gamat are terms given to edible Holothuroidea invertebrates . It is widely distributed in marine environments throughout the world, from tidal zones to deep seas, especially in the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific Ocean . In international journals, the terms trepang or beche-de-mer are never used in topics of diversity, biology , ecology or taxonomy . In these subjects, the terminology used to describe this group of animals is sea cucumbers or holothurians (called holothurians because these animals are included in the class Holothuroidea). There are more than 1,200 types of sea cucumbers in the world, and around 30 of them are the sea cucumber group. Sea cucumbers are slow-moving animals, living on the bottom of sand substrates , sandy mud, or in reef environments. Sea cucumbers are an important component in the food chain on coral reefs and their associated ecosystems at various levels of food structure ( trophic levels ). Sea cucumbers play an important role as deposit feeders and suspension feeders . In the Indo-Pacific region, on reef areas that do not experience exploitation pressure, the density of sea cucumbers can be more than 35 individuals per m2, where each individual can process 80 grams of dry weight of sediment every day. Several species of sea cucumbers that have important economic value include: white sea cucumbers ( Holothuria scabra ), koro sea cucumbers ( Microthele nobelis ), pandan sea cucumbers ( Theenota ananas ), dongnga sea cucumbers ( Stichopu ssp ), and several other types of sea cucumbers. Sea cucumbers have potential for treating diabetes mellitus. Sea cucumbers also have various biological functions such as anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative and anti-cancer activities.