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Sea Cucumber
During Dive 05 of the Seascape Alaska 3 expedition, we witnessed this sea cucumber “take flight,” lifting off of the seafloor at a depth of 2,803 meters (1.74 miles) and swimming into the water column. While many sea cucumbers spend a large portion of their time resting on the seafloor, some are able to swim through the water column with strong, rhythmic flexing motions until they reach neutral buoyancy and drift along until their next feeding trip on the bottom. We saw at least four different types of sea cucumbers, or holothurians, throughout the dive.