Found the mother load while out hiking around this past weekend.
From what I’ve read, they are considered a delicacy in some parts.
There has also been some recent poaching cases involving these.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/patch.com/w...-5-million-feds

I’m always up for trying something new.
Anyone every eat sea cucumbers and if so, how did you prepare them?
Thanks,
SF

I've had both vinegar brined sea cucumber and jelly fish in South East Asia and that's gonna be a HARD, HARD pass from me dawg.

I'd consider both to be about the worst things I've ever tried and that's really saying something - because I'll try anything. In fact, I have PTSD dry heaves just even thinking about it. Thanks for that Stoney...

I have eaten them prepared by others, and I have eaten them prepared by me...and as someone who pretty much eats any seafood, and usually raw, I will also take a pass. It's a hard call if these or sea urchins are worse, but either way they are both off my menu.

Fish on...

Todd

So you are both saying they are delicious?
Sounds like the sea cucumbers will be getting a pass....at least from me.
Thanks for the info.
SF

Don't let us persuade you. I think you should try some. Go for it. Don't be scared. DO IT!

Small ones, less than a foot in length are preferred eaters.

Best I have eaten them is in spicy hot pot/seafood stew. They have a gelatinous texture, similar to really tender beef tendon.

Not much for flavor though....therefore if you find the really big ones, try to extract the white goo-like substance they secrete and mix with horseradishand garlic. Great dipping sauce!

I've eaten a few fried. Tough. There's lots better out there in my find, and to my taste. But, to each his own.

There are 5 small strips of muscle running front to back inside of them that we used to remove and fry up. It was pretty good, not unlike razor clam in flavor but more tender. Problem was you needed to kill a couple dozen of them per person to get a decent meal, and we never did anything with the rest of them besides toss them on the beach for the seagulls which was a pretty big waste of such a magnificent animal. This was back in the 1970's when nobody cared about sea cucumbers and there were no harvest regulations.

The fact that sea gulls didn't care much for what was left over should be a pretty good indication of how the remaining parts of the animal are as table fare.

Been there done that.

This.

I recommend you at least try one, Stone.

At the end of they day, I always felt bad about not using 99% of the creature. I've only tried one - and that was only the muscle strips milt roe mentioned. I don't recall it being horrible, but not overy awesome either. Kinda, Meh. I can't even imagine eating any other part of it.

If I get back to that beach this summer on a minus tide...I'll take one for Team Paker and Nick D and give one a try.
Thankfully, I don't fish that beach often
SF

Elementary school field trip to the sound.
Teacher brought some back and cooked em up.
I don't remember them tasting bad but I enjoy the taste of a fresh clam.

Been scuba diving for a few decades. Had the one time thought of trying cucumbers. Didn't start off well as the half dozen or so I brought up in my goody bag deployed their natural defense of self-evisceration by turning inside out. Not pretty but made finding those cited bands of muscle easy to strip. Easy pass with all the other wonderful seafood options.

Had an Italian restaurateur friend ask me to bring his family some urchins before I left for a SJI dive trip. He had a stunning daughter, so I happily obliged. Upon delivery, both he and his wife were like vultures on a zebra carcass, deftly deploying garden shears around the underside of the urchins as quills whirled around in silent protest. Once a hatch was opened, fresh lemon juice was added to the interior contents, making the quills whirl faster, and the innards lustily scooped up. They looked quite happy as I politely declined their offer to try some on my way out the door....

But did the stunning daughter partake in the feast as well? Don't leave us hanging

I've harvested tens of thousands of pounds of the things and made good money doing it but as 2Many mentioned, a freshly cleaned clam is hands down a winner. Urchins are nasty as well but paid even more.

What fly pattern do you plan to use on a Cucumber Stone? I think a green algae blob pattern might be a winner....

Hand fly. Sky-Guy.

What was interesting, I always thought sea cucumbers kind of rolled or crawled, however they move along the bottom.
The big colony that we found, they were all under rocks with the ends of them sticking out. Some rocks had close to a dozen under them.

That is one cool thing about the Puget Sound....you continue to see or learn new things about it even after spending years on it.
SF

I'll pass, now Sea anemones are the cat's meow.

I've tried lots of sushi and like everything except for sea urchins or salmon roe. Never have tried sea cucumbers.

There are several species of sea cucumber in Puget Sound. The largest and the one that people typically eat lives on open sandy/muddy substrate, usually around 16 inches long. The one that lives one under rocks is not the same critter, much smaller, and I am not aware of any widespread consumption of that one. Could be the last un-tapped frontier in seafood.