Peter de Graaf | Saturday, August 20, 2011 8:00
SEVERED: This vicious-looking, but fortunately small, claw was found clinging to a net.
PETER DE GRAAF
It has a claw almost as long as its body, lined with razor-sharp hypodermic spikes.
It lurks in mud at the bottom of the Bay of Islands waiting to lunge at its prey and, ghost-like, is rarely seen by unsuspecting humans.
There's no need, however, to refuse to go back into the water. It might look vicious but the ghost shrimp is only a few centimetres long.
Kerikeri fisherman Simon Howard found the claw locked onto his flounder net after fishing in Te Puna Inlet in the northern Bay off Islands.
In 35 years of fishing he'd never seen a critter like it, so he brought it to the Advocate in the hope someone could identify it.
Northland marine guru Wade Doak called in an expert from Te Papa, Rick Webber, who identified it as the larger of two claws from a "ghost shrimp" called Ctenocheles maorianus Powell, a species native to New Zealand.
It was rarely seen because it burrowed in soft seabeds in, among other places, the Bay of Islands and Whangarei Harbour.
"It seems that it pokes its larger claw, usually the left one, out of its burrow. And nets, in particular, snag it and pull it off the animal, which usually remains in the burrow. It's probably a fairly terminal accident as the claw is over half the length of the animal itself and of central importance in feeding and defence," Mr Webber said.
Most specimens in Te Papa's collection consisted of the large claw alone, a lesser number of both claws, and only a few of the whole animal.
Article Source: http://www.northernadvocate.co.nz/news/ghostly-sea-critter-goes-out-on-a-limb2/1073589/
More News: http://gofishtalk.com
It lurks in mud at the bottom of the Bay of Islands waiting to lunge at its prey and, ghost-like, is rarely seen by unsuspecting humans.
There's no need, however, to refuse to go back into the water. It might look vicious but the ghost shrimp is only a few centimetres long.
Kerikeri fisherman Simon Howard found the claw locked onto his flounder net after fishing in Te Puna Inlet in the northern Bay off Islands.
In 35 years of fishing he'd never seen a critter like it, so he brought it to the Advocate in the hope someone could identify it.
Northland marine guru Wade Doak called in an expert from Te Papa, Rick Webber, who identified it as the larger of two claws from a "ghost shrimp" called Ctenocheles maorianus Powell, a species native to New Zealand.
It was rarely seen because it burrowed in soft seabeds in, among other places, the Bay of Islands and Whangarei Harbour.
"It seems that it pokes its larger claw, usually the left one, out of its burrow. And nets, in particular, snag it and pull it off the animal, which usually remains in the burrow. It's probably a fairly terminal accident as the claw is over half the length of the animal itself and of central importance in feeding and defence," Mr Webber said.
Most specimens in Te Papa's collection consisted of the large claw alone, a lesser number of both claws, and only a few of the whole animal.
Article Source: http://www.northernadvocate.co.nz/news/ghostly-sea-critter-goes-out-on-a-limb2/1073589/
More News: http://gofishtalk.com
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