News: Live vent worms on UCSB campus

[Jack Pearce]

Geoff,

I hope that this message can get forwarded to Jim. I am interested in 
whether anyone has ever found parasitic crabs of the family Pinnotheridae  
("pea crabs") in the mussels from the deep- water vents. My close friend 
Howard Sanders never saw any; but, his work was done decades ago.  

I have found the west coast mussel crab, Fabia subquadrata, im Modiolus 
from 200+ m in San Juan Channel in Georgian Bay and Pinnotheres 
maculatus with both Mytilus and Modiolus in 130 m in the Gulf of Maine 
Iintestingly this sp. nevers goes beyond Cape Cod in the intertidal and 
subtidal waters of the GOM.  

So, have any of these most unusual Brachyura ever made it to the sulphide
worlds of the vents?!?

Cheers, Jack Pearce, North American Editor, Marine Pollution Bulletin
             Buzzards Bay Lab, 54 Upland, Falmouth MA   02540   USA

Geoff Read wrote:

>  OCEAN VENT CREATURES STUDIED IN SURFACE TANKS
>  SANTA BARBARA, California, February 7, 2002 (ENS) –
>
> http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2002/2002L-02-07-09.html
>
> For the first time, scientists have succeeded in bringing some of the
> exotic creatures found around deep sea vents to the surface for live
> study.
>  James Childress, a professor of biology and an authority on deep
> sea organisms, brought 15 scarlet-colored tube worms, 12 white
> crabs, and 30 yellow mussels to special high pressure tanks at the
> University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). ...


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