COPEPODS (including sea lice)

Including sea lice.
As a group, the copepods are an important part of the marine ecology of the Pacific Northwest. The vast majority are free-living copepods and too tiny to be included in this volume—they appear as “jiggling” specks if noticed at all. Most are free-living and some are significant as part of the zooplankton, floating animal life that affects visibility for divers.
A significant number of the larger copepods are parasitic on fish and other marine animals and are popularly called sea lice. As a very small example, four parasitic copepods are illustrated here.