The giant red or California sea cucumber is the largest member of the family Holothuroidea, and a relative of sea urchins, sand dollars, starfish, brittle stars, and other echinoderms. Their bodies are organized in a completely different way from other members of the animal kingdom. While all other animals are bilaterally symmetrical, the bodies of sea cucumbers and their relatives are radially pentamerous B organized in a circle with five or multiples of five sections B and they have no brains or heads. The giant red sea cucumbers reach thirty inches in length and are bright red as adults. They are harvested for food, primarily for markets in Asia, from the wild and in farms on the Pacific coast of North America. They occur in other waters in temperate latitudes around the world where they scour the bottom for small bits of protein. Sea cucumbers have a unique way of defending themselves by shedding their internal organs to entangle and confuse predators. Like most echinoderms, sea cucumbers have enormous powers of regeneration.