Bay ghost shrimp
Neotrypaea californiensis
- On view
- Monterey Bay Habitats
- Animal type
- Invertebrates
- Ecosystem
- Beaches & dunes
- Relatives
- Blue mud shrimp, beach ghost shrimp; family Callianassidae
- Diet
- Plankton, zooplankton and detritus
- Range
- Alaska to Baja California
- Size
- From 4 to 5 inches (10.2–12.7 cm)
Meet the bay ghost shrimp
A resident of marine sloughs and bay flats on the west coast of North America, the ghost shrimp burrows in seafloor sediment. The burrow protects the shrimp’s soft, white body. But more important, as the shrimp wriggles along it collects food from the sediment and from the water flowing through the burrow.
Conservation
Fishermen collect the ghost shrimp for bait by using a plunger that sucks it out of its burrow. Fishing laws currently restrict how many ghost shrimp can be collected per day.
Even small amounts of oil, carried in by the tide and temporarily stranded in the intertidal zone, are likely to have serious effects on the ghost shrimp and other slough animals.
The sediment that the ghost shrimp spews out of its burrow can cover and destroy beds of young oysters.
Cool facts
- A hardy animal, a ghost shrimp can survive without oxygen for as long as six days.
- To find enough food, the ghost shrimp tunnels almost constantly, reworking the sediment to a depth of as much as 30 inches (76.2 cm).
- Its burrow is attractive to other small invertebrates as well—both for protection from predators and for leftover food. Other inhabitants of a ghost shrimp’s burrow might include pea crabs, scale worms and snapping shrimp. A clam might even put its siphon into a ghost shrimp’s burrow.
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