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Quursujuuq (Sea Cucumber)

Artist: Jobie Weetaluktuk The quursujuuq is a very strange sea creature. In English it is called a sea cucumber, because it looks like a dill pickle, but it is brown instead of green.

Even though it looks like a pickle and has a name like a vegetable, the sea cucumber is really an animal. It has lines of spines along its body. It is related to some other sea creatures that also have spines, including the starfish and the sea urchin.

Sea cucumbers live in the ocean. Sometimes you can find one in a tidal pool at the edge of the ocean. Tidal pools are a good place to find all kinds of interesting things, such as siupiruq [periwinkles], mussels, and different kinds of seaweed.

The Inuit of Nunavik have an old story about the sea cucumber. They say that when a person drowns in the sea, the sea cucumbers in the area start to whistle. They whistle to tell the other sea creatures that it is time to come and eat the dead person.

They also say that if you find bones along the shore, picked clean, with no flesh on them, it is proof that the body was eaten by sea cucumbers.

Excerpt from: Unikkaangualaurtaa (Let's Tell a Story)