The Giant Orange Sea Cucumber can be found from Haida Gwaii to California including all the outer islands. They are usually seen at depths of between 20 meters and 280 meters, but can sometimes be seen much closer to the surface.
They are covered with small, white, fleshy papilla along with around 20 feeding tentacles that are arranged in 2 circles, the body itself is orange with small darker rusty spots. The underside is much lighter except for the tube feet which are tipped with bright orange.
These guys are awesome to watch as they move about the bottom, looking for a meal. Giant Orange Sea Cucumbers move slowly along the bottom using five rows of sucker-like tube feet, Although one local species wiggles through the water in a swimming motion when attacked by the sunflower sea star.
They are able to alter their shape because instead of bones it has a skeleton made of water, a hydrostatic skeleton. This allows the sea cucumber to shorten and fatten its body to wedge itself into crevices and under rocks, or it can stiffen up when something tries to make a meal of them, making it hard to take a bite.
The orange sea cucumber has 20 bushy tentacles that can extend from their mouths, they are used to catching microscopic drifting food. These tentacles are covered by a sticky substance that traps food particles. To eat, the sea cucumber simply inserts its tentacles one by one into its mouth and sucks the food off them. After feeding, they pull all the tentacles into their mouth for safe storage. This a pretty strange way to feed itself, quite strange i must say.