Five Species of Parasitic Copepods (Siphonostomatoida: Pandaridae) from the Body Surface of a White Shark Captured in Morro Bay, California

Five pandarid (Copepoda) species, Dinemoura producta, D. latifolia, Echthrogaleus coleoptratus, Pandarus bicolor, and Acbtheinus oblongus, were collected from the external body surface of a white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, taken from Morro Bay in the northeastern Pacific Ocean off central California. This is the first report of parasitic copepods collected from C. carcharias captured in the northeastern Pacific along the West Coast of North America. It is proposed that the species-rich infections of some white sharks may be the result of the wide wanderings of individual sharks through waters inhabited by other elasmo-branchs.