New observation of two species of sea cucumbers from Chabahar bay (Southeast coasts of Iran)

Abstract

Although, sea cucumbers are well known animals in Eastern Asia, in Iran they are not popular marine animals. Divers recorded these animals in their dives but this is the first scientific approach in identification of holoturians in Southeast coast of Iran. All sea cucumbers were collected with SCUBA diving and species identification was done through morphological keys and review of their dermal ossicles. There are two species of sea cucumber belong to genus Holothuria were collected on subtidal zone of Chabahar Bay in the late of 2007. This is the first report of H. hilla, H. parva from Chabahar Bay (North of Oman Sea). This study is revealed the special characteristics of the presented species in order to just identification of them. In the studied areas, H. parva has known as a rare species. © 2009 Knowledgia Review, Malaysia.