March, 2000 
SCAMIT Newsletter 
Vol. 18, No. 11 
a clear look at any spination, etc. I didn’t 
feel it was necessary since what I could 
see matched all the illustrations I had 
perfectly.” 
Lastly Dot brought out two specimens of an 
odd little isopod, Pleurogonium sp SF 1. This 
was unlike P. californiense , P. sp A, and P. 
rubicundum in totally lacking coxal spination. 
The animals were large for the genus and rather 
chalky (dead white - but blue stained). They 
were unknown to the members present, but 
Don Cadien suggested that they might be Sars 
species P. inerme , a potential circumboreal 
form. The literature was not at hand, and 
further checking was required after the 
meeting. He promised to send copies of the 
Sars plates to Dot so she could evaluate the 
possibility herself. The species was left at P. sp 
SF 1 pending further information. This was the 
first time the species had been encountered, 
and no additional specimens were available. 
My Life as a Biologist 
by Donald J. Reish 
Chapter 18: Some Interesting Consulting 
Contracts 
There will be some duplication of information 
from previous chapters. Disneyland contacted 
Ken Maxwell and me to investigate the 
problem they were having with leeches in their 
waterways. The divers, who enter the water 
every day to monitor tracks and pipes, would 
have leeches attached to them whenever they 
went in the water. They wanted extra hazard 
pay because of the leeches. Ken and I would go 
to Disneyland when it was not in operation and 
look for leeches. We never found any living 
leeches because they would poison the water 
just before we came. The director of 
maintenance claimed that the leeches came 
from the 1900 drug store on main street (no 
longer there). They had medicinal leeches on 
display which the director claimed that they 
emptied into the water. I found 3 cocoons in a 
far corner of the river which had developing 
leeches. I brought them to the lab and raised 
them by feeding them sludge worms. A person 
in Maine identified the leech as one that feeds 
on worms and snails and is not a blood sucker. 
Once again it proves the importance of correct 
species identification. The officials at 
Disneyland were happy! 
I do not know how it started but the radiation 
branch of EPA contacted me to determine if the 
drums containing low level radioactive wastes 
had any effect on the marine benthic 
environment. Thousands of these drums were 
dumped in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in 
deep water in the 1950s. I went on the first trip 
in 1976 off Delaware about 125 miles. They 
brought a drum up from 10,000 feet. I noted 
serpulid tubes on the surface which I later 
studied and believe to be a new species (I don t 
know if I still have the specimens. Maybe my 
gradual clean up of my stuff will encounter 
them.) Steve Bay went on the second trip off 
Delaware; Randy McGlade went off San 
Francisco [Gulf of the Farallones Deep Water 
Dumpsite - Ed.] twice and Joe LeMay once. 
There did not seem to be any effect of the 
drums on the benthic fauna. Joe collected fish 
on his trip and preserved the stomachs and 
intestines. I was able to demonstrate that 
invertebrates can be identified from intestinal 
contents; furthermore, I was able to 
demonstrate that so-called planktonic feeders 
also feed on benthic animals. EPA published 
some of my reports in the radiation series. 
I was one of three (Herb Ward, editor of 
SETAC journal was one) asked to review data 
collected years earlier on the long term effects 
of oil well production on the ecology of the 
Gulf of Mexico. For 2 years I went to Houston 
about every 8 weeks to evaluate the data. None 
of the original data collected, which showed no 
effect, had been published. The oil companies 
who sponsored the original study wanted us to 
reevaluate the data, draw our own conclusions, 
and publish our findings. We found no effect, 
in fact, we found out that more oil enters the 
Gulf of Mexico each day via the Mississippi 
River than has been spilled in 30-40 years of 
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