Thursday, August 18, 2005

Prawn Addiction

Mud shrimp (Upogebia pugettensis) on the west coast of the US and Canada have gone and gotten themselves a brand-new parasite - not good news for the continued success of the shrimp. According to this story at OSU News, researchers at Oregon State University estimate that the recently discovered Griffen's isopod (Orthione griffenis) has infected as much as 80% of breeding-sized shrimp. One side effect of the parasite is that the shrimp have pretty much stopped reproducing. No one is sure where the isopod originated from, but the fact that it is so large suggests that if it were native, biologists would have discovered it long ago.

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