[3] Three species of shrimp in the genus Hippolyte are known from the eastern Pacific Ocean.

[3][4] The California green shrimp is known from the western coast of North America where it ranges in shallow water from Bodega Bay to the Gulf of California, but is uncommon southwards from Elkhorn Slough.

[4] The California green shrimp is a specialist feeder on the eel grass Zostera marina.

[5] This shrimp congregates in large numbers at night around eel grass clumps, swimming in and out among the individual blades.

[4] This species engages in rafting, being conveyed across the surface of the sea, carried along on buoyant objects such as floating clumps of seaweed, and this aids in the shrimp's dispersal to new locations.