Table 1 . — Prevalence of the egg predator Carcinonemertes 

 errans on Dungeness crabs collected in the Columbia River 

 estuary from November 1983 through October 1985. 



Table 2.— Prevalence of the egg predator Carcinonemertes 

 errans on Dungeness crabs collected in nearshore areas 

 of the Pacific Ocean from December 1983 through Septem- 

 ber 1985. 



Our data indicate that C. errans is a marine 

 species that apparently cannot tolerate the lower 

 salinities in the Columbia River estuary. It would 

 be informative to examine Dungeness crabs from 

 other Oregon and Washington estuaries with typi- 

 cally higher salinities to determine if infestation 

 levels are comparable to those in the Columbia River 

 estuary. 



Acknowledgments 



We thank personnel at the Hammond, OR, Field 

 Station of the Northwest and Alaska Fisheries 

 Center (NMFS) for their assistance in field sam- 

 pling. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Portland 

 District) provided partial financial support for this 

 study. 



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George T. McCabe, Jr. 



Robert L. Emmett 



Travis C. Coley 



Robert J. McConnell 



Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Center 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 

 2725 Montlake Boulevard East 

 Seattle, WA 98112 



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