November, 1999 
SCAMIT Newsletter 
Vol. 18, No. 7 
(Hendrickx, 1995); reporting Pandalus amplus 
rather than Pandalopsis amplus in the eastern 
Pacific. Komai revisits this and finds that 
although the Pandalopsis clade is surrounded 
by the Pandalus clade, it is none-the-less 
morphologically distinct. He advocates 
retention of the taxon at full generic rank, 
maintaining that it is monophyletic where 
Pandalus is polyphyletic. 
He also disagrees with Wicksten’s synonymy 
of Pandalus gurneyi and Pandalus danae 
(Wicksten, 1991). He feels that the specimens, 
rather than forming a cline with gradual change 
from north to south in a single population, 
represent two distinct populations with a 
limited region of overlap. He views P. danae as 
the more northern species, ranging into Alaska; 
and P. gurneyi as the southern species. The 
ranges of the two overlap in southern and 
central California. He provides a key to the 
genus which allows separation of the two 
forms, and re-diagnoses and re-figures both. 
According to Komai there are several 
characters which separate the two 
morphologically, the most easily observed 
being the number of ventral rostral teeth - 6 or 
less in P. danae , 8 or more in P. gurneyi. 
Examination of CSDLAC vouchers with these 
characters in mind yields only specimens of P. 
gurneyi. This may not hold true for other 
agencies and other collections, but your 
vouchers should be re-identified with this 
paper in hand. Interestingly, Komai points out 
differences in live coloration and color 
patterning of the two species, using Wicksten’s 
descriptions. 
Anomuran crabs form a small part of the catch 
in our monitoring trawls and benthic infaunal 
grab samples. They are however, a very diverse 
group. This is amply demonstrated by the 
listing of 207 species which occur in the 
Eastern Tropical Pacific (Hendrickx & Harvey, 
1999). A number of the species listed are only 
encountered in intertidal or subtidal rocky 
habitats which are not covered by most 
agencies. There are, however, a number of 
species listed which we do take, at least 
occasionally. This list provides a convenient 
and comprehensive source for distributional 
and nomenclatural changes in the group 
replacing earlier and more scattered literature 
records. 
Broadening concern for impacts of trawl 
fishing have prompted a flurry of papers 
concerning the subject in the last few years. A 
recent contribution is from Freese et al (1999) 
on impacts observed directly from a 
submersible in the Eastern Gulf of Alaska. 
They monitored the effects of a commercial 
rockfish trawl, normally fished over a boulder, 
cobble, pebble ground. Many of the large 
invertebrates on this bottom are sessile 
cnidarians or sponges. These form secondary 
structure and provide habitat for associated 
smaller motile invertebrates. Damage to them 
would have potential impacts on the food web, 
and constitution of the smaller invertebrate 
community. The authors report observation of 
movement of boulders and damage or removal 
of larger sessile epibenthic organisms in a 
single trawl pass. Damage to or changes in 
density of motile invertebrates was not 
observed, but such organisms are not easily 
evaluated from a submersible, and such 
damage may have gone undetected. A 
subsequent survey in the area will address 
longer term effects. 
Of equal concern is the impact of introduced 
artificial substrate on the marine environment. 
Does it actually expand the available habitat 
and increase the carrying capacity of coastal 
waters, or does it merely attract and 
concentrate organisms from adjacent habitat, 
reducing their productivity while appearing to 
enhance the ecosystem? Page et al (1999) 
address this issue with regard to crabs of 
potential commercial importance. They 
examined occurrence and abundance of a 
number of larger crabs around an oil platform 
in the Santa Barbara Channel. They found that 
the crab species studied showed differing 
responses to the platform depending on 
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