Sipunculids have not yet been used as environmental indicator species, and not many studies have been conducted on anthropogenic disturbances to their environments. This said, it has been suggested they have been forced out of bays from offshore habitats by human expansion. Cutler (1973) identified the disappearance of Phascolin strobes from Narragansett Bay in Rhode island during the first half of the twentieth century, and attributed it to human activity. However, faunal shifts occur naturally in many Sipunculid populations, and this creates noise when attempting to identify the legitimate cause of changes to population size and structure (Cutler, 1994).

            Some studies on the effects of pollution in Belfast Harbor, and tin mining in Thailand have identified drops in abundances of Sipunculids, but these studies were not specific to Sipuncula (Parker, 1980; Hylleberg & Nateewathana, 1983).