New host and ocean records for the copepod Ommatokoita elongata (Siphonostomatoida : Lernaeopodidae), a parasite of the eyes of sleeper sharks

Seven of Pacific sleeper sharks (Somniosus pacificus Bigelow and Schroeder, 1944) captured in Prince William Sound, Alaska, were actively infected, and all 8 had been at one time infected with the parasitic copepod Ommatokoita elongata (Grant, 1827) (Siphonostomatoida: Lernaeopodidae). Active infections consisted of adult females and chalimus larvae that had attached to the corneas of the sharks' eyes. This report documents a new host record and possibly the only reliable record of this parasite from a host other than the Greenland shark, Somniosus microcephalus (Bloch and Schneider, 1801). It also documents the first time O. elongata has been identified outside of the Atlantic Ocean or its locally adjacent straits and seas.