GULF OF MEXICO COMMERCIAL SHRIMP POPULATIONS 



375 



I -1 



1.0 



A. COMMERCIAL YIELD (millions of pounds, heods-on) 

 •-APALACHICOLA 

 o-PENSACOLA-MISSISSIPPI RIVER 



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B. YIELD PER DAY'S TRAWLING 





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APALA- 

 CHICOLA 



PENSACOLA- 

 MISS. RIVER 



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1 — T^TT ' 



JMMJSNJMMJSNJMMJSNJMMJSN 

 1956 1957 1958 1959 



FOUR- YEAR 

 TREND 



-TT-r: 



1956 - 59 



f-IO 



Figure 24. — Total and average yield of pink shrimp populations in inshore waters along llie northeastern Gulf coast, 



1956-59. 



bo inferred from serial plots of average catches 

 (fig. 24B). Larvae evidently begin appearing on 

 the inshore nursery grounds toward the end of 

 the calendar year. Growth to a fishable size is 

 attained late the same winter and early the follow- 

 ing spring. That migration from inshore waters 

 is well underway by ]\£ay is corroborated by 

 concurrent increases in offshore catches. By the 

 end of August pink shrimp have practically dis- 

 appeared from inshore waters. Data on size 

 composition of catches made in adjacent offshore 

 waters are inadequate to prove whether or not 

 more than one period of peak spawning activity 

 occurred each year, but they suggest a single 

 peak extending over a period of 1 or 2 months. 

 Siunmary of Jf-year status. — Except for 1958, 

 pink shrimp contributed little to upper Gulf 

 coast fisheries. Foiu'-year population trends were 

 either very pronounced and meaningless due to 

 widely fluctuating population levels (Apalachi- 

 cola), or nonexistent with populations holding 

 steady at very low levels (Pensacola-Mississippi 

 River). All data point to the fact that the pink 

 shrimp's commercial range extends no farther 

 westward than the Apalachicola area. 



The Gulf of Campeche Population 



Shrimp stocks lying off the northern coast of 

 Yucatan, although reconnoitered by the Japanese 

 as early as 1936, were not fished significantly 

 until the dose of World War II. Operations on 

 the so-called Obregon-Campeche grounds by 



United States vessels began about 1950 and have 

 steadily expanded ever since. 



Three species of Penaeidae support the Gulf 

 of Campeche fishery. Bro\^^l and white shrimp 

 are found in commercial quantities off Tupilco 

 and Obregon (statistical subareas 31 and 32), 

 while pink shrimp predominate north of Carmen 

 and west of Campeche (statistical subareas 

 33-35). No United States fleet activity in the 

 Yucatan Coast area (statistical subareas 36-40) 

 has been reported in recent years. 



On the basis of comparisons with data supplied 

 b}" the Mexican Bm-eau of Fisheries and Allied 

 Industries for the years 1956 and 1957, the Mexi- 

 can fleet accounts for about 56 percent of all 

 skrimp harvested annually in the Campeche area 

 (appendix table 6). Reflecting to some extent a 

 respect for Mexico's claim to a 9-mile territorial 

 limit, the United States fleet takes only about 6 

 percent and 1 percent, respectively, of the total 

 brown and white shrimp harvest, but almost 65 

 percent of the total pink shrimp catch. United 

 States vessels concentrate their activities on the 

 extensive flats within a radius of 15 to 80 miles 

 west of Morros Point. 



Statistical coverage of the fleet fishing the 

 Obregon-Campeche grounds is complicated soine- 

 wiuit by tiie fact that trawlers completing a trip 

 may land portions of catches of as many as a 

 half dozen other trawlers still on tiie fishing 

 grounds, and only a fraction of wiiat they them- 

 selves caught while away from port. Thi^ ^ "x 



