FISHERY' BULLETIN: VOL. 69, NO. 2 



Figure 2. — Royal red shrimp grounds off east coast of 

 Florida. Large dots, lat 28°30' to 30°00' N, represent 

 most productive portion. 



Straits, and (3) off the Mississippi River Delta. 

 Accounts of these surveys were given by Spring- 

 er and Bullis (1952, 1954), Bullis (1956), Bullis 

 and Rathjen (1959), Bullis and Thompson 

 (1959), Cummins and Rivers (1962), and Bullis 

 and Cummins (1963). Anderson and Bullis 

 (1970) gave an account of direct observations 

 made on the St. Augustine grounds during a 



dive with the research submarine Aluminaut on 

 September 21, 1967; Klima (1969) gave the 

 length-weight relation; and Roe (1969) sum- 

 marized the distribution on the three major 

 grounds off the southeastern United States. 



Biologists at the former BCF Biological Lab- 

 oratory, Brunswick, Ga., studied the biology of 

 royal red shrimp at the grounds off St. Augus- 

 tine, Fla., by accompanying vessels of the BCF 

 Exploratory Fishing and Gear Research Base, 

 Pascagoula, Miss., and of the Exploratory Fish- 

 ing Station, Brunswick, Ga. The work contin- 

 ued from 1957 to 1967, as opportunities arose, 

 on the exploratory fishing vessels Combat, Silver 

 Bay, and Oregon. 



This paper presents the results of these 11 

 years of intermittent data-gathering. 



THE ST. AUGUSTINE GROUNDS 



The part of these grounds generally fished 

 extends from about lat 28°30' N to 30°00' N 

 in 256 to 475 m (140-260 fm) but the most 

 productive part is between lat 29°00' N and lat 

 30°00' N, and it is from this area that most 

 of the data were obtained. 



The BCF surveys of the St. Augustine 

 Grounds indicate that they average about 15.4 

 km (8.3 nautical miles) in width and have a 

 steep angle of descent. The bottom between 

 183 and 256 m (100 and 140 fm) is largely un- 

 trawlable owing to dense stands of deep-sea 

 alyconarians (sea fans) and limestone forma- 

 tions. Between 256 and 475 m ( 140 and 260 fm) 

 the bottom is largely sand or silty-sand sedi- 

 ments (referred to as "green mud" by fisher- 

 men), is relatively free of obstructions, and 

 provides excellent trawling conditions. Deeper 

 than 475 m (260 fm) , extensive patches of deep- 

 sea coral, Lophelia proUfera, make the bottom 

 hazardous to trawling with standard shrimp 

 gear. 



Anderson and Bullis (1970) made the follow- 

 ing observations from the Aluminaut in 457 to 

 274 m (250-150 fm), and beUveen lat 29°10' and 

 29''20' N: "The bottom was remarkedly free 

 from obstructions and consisted of a grayish, 

 loosely constituted sediment that readily clouded 

 the water at the least disturbance. It was 



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