Mesidotea

a genus of benthic crustaceans of the order Isopoda. Body length, up to 8 cm. There are four species, found in waters of various salinity. They inhabit the deep waters of the Arctic Ocean, the shallows of the seas of the Polar Basin, the low-saline littoral regions of the Okhotsk and Bering seas, and the mouths of the northern rivers of the USSR. They exist as relicts in the Baltic and Caspian seas and in some large lakes of northern Europe and North America. Mesidotea serve as food for many commercially valuable fishes but often damage fishing nets and the fishes in them.