The sea pigs reported in our 2013 Journal feature in episode 2 of David Attenborough’s “Blue Planet II” which was shown on Channel 9 TV recently. The episode can be viewed at https://www.9now.com.au/blue-planet-ii/2018/episode-2 . I first heard about sea pigs via a Facebook post in 2013. The post at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=666774150010266&set=a.456449604376056.98921.367116489976035&type=1&theater stated, “Sea pigs are marine animals around 15 cm long that live about 1,000 metres down on the deep sea floor. They are scotoplanes (sea cucumbers) and their ‘legs’ are actually elongated feet which are used to push food into their mouths. The apparent antennae on the front of the head are also feet, used to tread the deep sea water. They feed on deep ocean mud and thrive on the organic material present there. The sea pigs are not considered as a threat to humans and they are not an endangered species.”
Some (humorous?) video footage presented by a “zefrank1” about the sea pig and other sea cucumbers can be found at: http://bit.ly/16fu2PW . The narration of the video is somewhat confronting. The footage is called “True Facts About The Sea Pig”. (“zefrank1” seems to have done a series of videos of ‘True Facts’.)
These images from Facebook don’t do the sea pig justice when compared to the video footage. They featured in our 2013 Journal: –
