July, 1999 
SCAMIT Newsletter 
Vol. 18, No.3 
the field. It was viewed as a Plesionika, and 
bore a long upswept rostrum as do most in that 
genus, but was much larger than other local 
species and brightly colored. We returned it to 
the laboratory, where Dave Montagne took it to 
Plesionika carinirostris Hendrickx 1990 in the 
Hendrickx 1995d key. 
This was rather shocking, since the only known 
specimen of this species was taken in the Gulf 
of California. To find another was wonderful, 
and for that collection to be off California was 
unexpected. Despite damage in the tank after 
collection, the specimen was clearly 
identifiable based on the presence of only 2 
movable spines at the base of the rostrum, by 
the carination and shape of the ventral rostral 
teeth, by the number of subdivisions of the 
carpus of the second legs, and by the large size 
(over 10cm). Our collection at 150 m was 
much shallower than the 360-380m depth at 
which the holotype was taken in the central 
Gulf of California. Dave’s identification was 
confirmed by Dr. Michel Hendrickx when he 
visited the Natural History Museum and spoke 
at the 5 July SCAMIT meeting. Color notes 
were taken on the animal, and may prove 
useful in recognizing it again. Other local 
Plesionika species have not been brightly 
colored when captured. 
29 JUNE INTERCALIBRATION CRUISE 
Representatives from 11 groups met on board 
the CSDLAC monitoring vessel R/V Ocean 
Sentinel for an intercalibration cruise on 29 
June. The first such cruise in June 1998 was 
made as one of the many quality assurance 
steps in preparation for the Bight’98 field 
season. This year the impetus was the positive 
experience of the first cruise. We anticipate that 
the series will continue on an annual basis 
between and during regional monitoring years. 
A series of stations along a transect crossing 
the western edge of the San Pedro Sea Shelf 
were occupied. We started at the deepest 
station(200 m) and worked shoreward 
sampling at 140, 80, 60,40, and 20 m. Since 
we experienced no gear-related delay we also 
had time to visit a nearby station and sample at 
150 m in the throat of a slight defile leading 
down to the shelf edge. This nearly proved 
disastrous as we caught a string of abandoned 
crab traps, but the net was not damaged and an 
interesting trawl catch was recovered. 
Each tow followed the standard monitoring 
trawl protocol of 10 minute bottom time with a 
standard Marinovich net, and the same bridal 
length stipulated for the Bight’98 trawls. Once 
the catch was out of the net on deck it was 
divided into two holding tanks, one for fish and 
one for invertebrates. The participants were 
similarly divided, although a few individuals 
split their time between the two sides. 
Processing was as usual for monitoring trawls 
except that weights and measurements were 
not taken, and specimen number was 
estimated. All taxa taken were identified, and 
participants found little to differ over. Few 
new things were taken (the Plesionika 
mentioned above was a notable exception), but 
everyone saw at least a few things new to 
them. The fish catch was also pretty standard, 
providing good intercalibration material. 
Specimens were collected to fulfill requests 
from Dr. Gordon Hendler (NHMLAC), and Dr. 
Eric Hochberg (SBMNH), and Larry Lovell 
(SIO) was on hand to make representative 
collections of invertebrates from each trawl. 
Our main purpose was to examine together 
fresh trawl-caught animals hoping to benefit 
from each others experience, and make sure we 
were not using different field cues in our 
identifications. Several groups which are 
planning to undertake new trawling efforts in 
the near future were represented (OCSD, 
MLML), and were glad to gain some 
experience before venturing out on their new 
programs. It was particularly gratifying to have 
the Moss Landing folks down. Few links have 
been forged between the central-northern 
California monitoring community and their 
southern California counterparts. Distances 
separating them are considerable, and the effort 
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