A diver in Mauritius captured a rather private moment when he spotted a sea cucumber having a bathroom break.
Photographer Ian Haggerty was exploring the reef with Ocean Spirit Scuba Diving when he came across the sea cucumber doing its business.
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Like earthworms, these animals eat, digest and excrete sediment. This is known as ‘bioturbation’ and is an important part of keeping the ecosystem healthy.
A 2021 study used remote sensing data from drones and satellite imagery of Heron Island Reef in Queensland, Australia, to measure how much excrement sea cucumbers produce.
“Our research found that each year sea cucumbers can poop over 60,000 tonnes of sediment across a coral reef, approximately the mass of five Eiffel towers,” Dr Vincent Raoult, marine scientist at the University of Newcastle, said in a statement at the time.
The marine creature wasn’t pooping for long, says Haggerty: “I think I just caught the tail end of it making sand babies.”
Image and video credit: Ian Haggerty RSA
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