Several species of marine worms and crustaceans are routinely imported into California for use as live bait. The most common of these is the ghost shrimp (a translucent crayfish-like burrowing crustacean found in coastal mud flats along the West Coast). The goal of this project was to evaluate some of the potential risks associated with the live-bait trade, in terms of its potential to spread non-native bait spe- cies, their associated parasites, and “hitchhiker” species, which may be present in bait packing materials such as seaweed. A genetics study was also conducted to determine whether importing ghost shrimp from Washington and Oregon to California might “genetically pollute” southern populations.

The bait industry in Southern California imports live ghost shrimp, Neotrypaea californiensis, from Oregon and Washington. Though ghost shrimp occur naturally in Southern California, southern populations may be genetically different from northern ones.