Northwest Dive Club

I took this photo a few years back in the debris field just north of the "old" Mukilteo T-dock, (before they "improved" it by removing all the debris!). To my amazement, the shrimp was pure BLACK!

The shrimp was pretty small - about 1 1/2 inches in length - and was scrambling for cover as I shot this photo. it's the only photo that I was able to get of it as I didn't want to destroy its home (or the shrimp itself!) trying to get another shot.

The depth was between 50 and 60 FSW, if I recall it correctly.

I've not been able to identify it. ](*,) Does anyone have any ideas as to what species this shrimp might be?

I'm e-mailing Dr. Greg Jensen at the UW about it, but thought that I'd post it here also.

- John

<a href="" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/188/4130 ... de31_o.jpg" width="750" height="539" alt="Black Shrimp"></a>

I received a reply from Dr. Jensen:

"Hi, John!

it's a Heptacarpus brevirostris. This species is highly variable in color, but you don't see all black ones very often. They're also a pain to
photograph (not just the black ones) because they dash off for cover.
Usually only get one shot off on 'em.

Greg"

I never even considered that species! Nowhere in any of my books or on the web did I see any black ones, but I guess that H. brevirostris, commonly referred to as the "Stout Shrimp" can be any color, or combination of colors, in the rainbow!

Any of you that have Greg Jensen's or Andy Lamb's books, look up Heptacarpus brevirostris and prepare to have your jaw drop. It's amazing that this species has such a vast color variation.

- John

Very cool John, and thanks for posting (pic and results).

-Valerie

Very cool!

Ah... someday I hope to throw around names like "heptacarpus bla bla" and actually know what I'm talking about!

Tom Nic wrote:Very cool!

Ah... someday I hope to throw around names like "heptacarpus bla bla" and actually know what I'm talking about!

HA! Don't kid yourself! Like I said, I had to go look it up in the books!

Now Dr. Greg Jensen, on the other hand, CAN just rattle those scientific names off. He's one of our local treasures when it comes to crabs and shrimps.

- John

I originally thought it was just a genetic mutation of a regular shrimp, y'know, like reverse-albinoism.