Cheer up, Linda! There's at least one restaurant in my area that serves
dishes with sea cucumber slices mixed in. It's a Chinese restaurant that has
a mix of Chinese and Korean recipes. I was told that in China there is a
holiday around Christmas with a tradition of eating recipes with sea
cucumber. It's supposed to be very expensive--for most Chinese. It's tasty
enough; chewy, as you might expect.

Actually, if you do any snorkeling or wading in intertidal waters, you
should be able to encounter lots of live sea cucumbers. They don't bite but
beware that some of them will throw out their sticky intestines when
disturbed. (I've only encountered this once and dodged the guts). Otherwise,
they're quite harmless and comical.

David Kirsh
Durham, NC
>
> Hi, Everyone!
>
> Now I feel dumb and cheated - we were collecting dead
> material washed ashore near the lighthouse on Sanibel a
> few weeks back, and I pitched a dead sea cucumber back in
> the drink!  For shame - I might have missed an opportunity
> to collect some eulimids.  Live and learn.
>
> Cheers and Happy 4th,
> Linda