Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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  • http://twitter.com/sirkowski Sirkowski

    So what % of the ocean is fish splooge?

    • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

      99%

    • SumAnon

       (The % you’d be comfortable with) + 1

  • jaypee

    I have to admit, the video was a bit anticlimactic.

    (Did you see what I did there?)

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

    According to what I’ve read sea cucumbers can turn away predators by ejecting most of their internal organs, which then grow back. Call me a sadist but I’d rather see that trick caught on camera.

    • jackbird

      I triggered that once when wading among tidepools.  It looks like the sea cucumber suddenly decides to make a bunch of soba noodles.  The extrusion took about 15 seconds from start to finish.

      • jackbird

        A lot like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCxKFc3XtJs 

        • http://twitter.com/oodja Tom Bruno

          Eject the warp core!

  • http://twitter.com/ideatrip Mike Nemeth

    The Sea Cucumbers are named for their resemblance to the vegetable Cucumber, but are not related to the Cucumis sativus vine. -Wikipedia

    • http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker

      Thanks, Wikipedia. Thwikipedia. 

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Maybe this explains the Arabian Nights tale about the cucumber stuffed with pearls.

  • snagglepuss

    WC Fields was right.

    • http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

      “Don’t work with children or animals”?

    • http://plagmada.org Tim H

       ”I don’t drink water, fish fuck in it”. 

      I was reading through the comments just to see if someone else had put this up or not.  Dang you.

      • snagglepuss

        I’ll let you have the next one.

  • Stephen Gordon

    Does this count as an animal penis video?

  • eviladrian

    It might look strange to us, but I’m sure the sea cucumber would be more freaked out if it saw how we do it.

  • http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis

    I hate it when they try to have a plot. Fast forward to the good part about a minute in.

  • Jen Onymous

    Looks like a great toy idea for this company (WARNING: VNSFW):

    http://bad-dragon.com/

  • lorq

    I like how the camera starts backing off as cucumber tumescence develops.  Like someone having serious second thoughts about the one night stand they’ve found themselves in.

  • Paul Renault

     The Internet IS for porn!

  • Monkey_pants

    “Sea cucumbers – they’re just like us!”

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=601684471 Marjo Aho

    Seacucumbers are not that interesting. You should feature nudibranchs instead. Their mating behaviors are much more interesting. For example, they engage in something know as “penis fencing” where two nudies crawl up to eachother, “draw their swords”,  fance it out and whoever manages to stick his…uhum..slug organ…under the “skirt” of the other nudie get to be the “male”. In some species mating happens in orgies of several individuals. I witnessed 7 nudies having what looked like a jolly good seaslug  group-activity time while diving in Milne Bay, PNG. Bonus points: some nudies are actually solar powered!