[NatureNS] marine creatures series on Maritime Noon for 2 weeks,

Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:50:04 -0300
From: Jim Wolford <jimwolford@eastlink.ca>
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Sorry this note is less than timely, but yesterday on Maritime Noon, CBC
Radio One, from noon to 1 p.m., the show started a daily series on marine
creatures or biodiversity, and the first item was right at the end of the
hour.  The series will last for two weeks (to Aug. 31?).

Gerhard Pohl??, of The Ark, a facility or museum at the Huntsman Marine Lab
in St. Andrew's, N.B., gave a short and enthusiastic talk and desription of
what he named the "golden-eyed shrimp" (Lithocrangon was the genus but I
didn't get the species name)(and the common name was made up by Gerhard).

This is an animal of the dark depths, taken by netting at 1000 metres?
depth, in total darkness, but I didn't hear where it had been collected.
This had happened on a recent marine research cruise.  It's of interest that
this species was previously not known from Canadian waters, and it's an
example of how much is still to be discovered in the deep ocean.

This is recognizable as a shrimp, but has a very sturdy exoskeleton and is
well protected by lots of spines.

In describing one of several specimens to the interviewer, Gerhard mentioned
a conspicuous "bump" on the carapace, which represents an internal parasitic
isopod crustacean (thus one crustacean is parasitic on another crustacean).
Also he was surprised that this parasite was apparently quite common on the
specimens of the golden-eyed shrimp that were collected.

The last point made by Gerhard was that many "parasites" do not do a lot of
damage (or any) to their hosts, since it is in their interest usually to
keep the hosts alive and reasonably healthy if possible.

Cheers from Jim in Wolfville

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