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This pink marvel really is a sea cucumber, though very different from the fat, dark sluggish forms nudging along in tide pools. The Celebes Sea beauty, Enypniastes eximia, ranks among the small group of sea cucumbers that can leave the ocean floor and swim gracefully, if slowly. By undulating its collarlike structure, E. eximia can move dozens of meters up into the water column. Census researchers found the cuke some 2,500 meters below the surface of the Celebes Sea. Dropping down to more than 5,000 meters in places, the Celebes has several deep, chilly basins. Yet it also sits within the Coral Triangle, a region famed for shallow, warm wonderlands of reefs. A census expedition that went to the Celebes will help researchers address such broad questions as whether the deep basins mirror the richness of life found in the surrounding shallows. Credit: Photo by Larry Madin/WHOI