THE UNITED STATES SHRIMP FISHERY OFF 

 NORTHEASTERN SOUTH AMERICA (1972-74) 1 



Albert C. Jones and Alexander Dragovich 2 



ABSTRACT 



The Guianas-Brazil shrimp fishery off the northeastern coast of South America is supported by four 

 principal species— pink-spotted shrimp, Penaeus brasiliensis; brown shrimp, P. subtilis; pink shrimp, 

 P. notialis; and white shrimp, P. schmitti. The areas off Guyana, Surinam, and western French Guiana 

 were dominated by pink-spotted shrimp; brown shrimp were most prevalent off eastern French Guiana 

 and Brazil, pink shrimp off Guyana, and white shrimp off Guyana, French Guiana, and Brazil, chiefly 

 in shallow waters. 



U.S.-flag vessels landed 5.0 million pounds of shrimp during the second half of 1972, 13.6 million 

 pounds in 1973, and 9.0 million pounds in 1974. In 1973 and 1974 U.S.-flag vessels took 50% and 39% of 

 the total international landings. Mean annual catch rates for 1972, 1973, and 1974 were 20.0, 26.0, and 

 18.3 lb/h, respectively. Monthly catch rates peaked each year in March and April and declined 

 gradually thereafter. The catch rates off Brazil were higher than off the Guianas. Most fishing was 

 carried on at night and at depths of 21-35 fathoms. 



Small shrimp appeared to be recruited to the fishery mainly in April and October and mainly off 

 French Guiana, Brazil, and Guyana. 



An exponential surplus yield model estimated the maximum sustainable yield to be 28.7 million 

 pounds and a linear model estimated the maximum sustainable yield to be 27.1 million pounds. 

 Maximum observed yield was 27.3 million pounds (1973). 



The shrimp resource off the northeastern coast of 

 South America (Figure 1) is the basis of a major 

 international fishery. This fishery consists of four 

 principal species — pink-spotted shrimp, Penaeus 

 brasiliensis; brown shrimp, P. subtilis; pink 

 shrimp, P. notialis; and white shrimp, P. 

 schmitti. Penaeus subtilis and P. notialis until 

 recently were known as P. aztecus subtilis and P. 

 duorarum notialis, respectively (Perez Farfante in 

 press). The earliest exploratory fishery survey of 

 the continental shelf off the northeastern coast of 

 South America was made in 1944 by Whiteleather 

 and Brown (1945). Commercial shrimp fishing by 

 U.S. vessels began in 1959 stimulated by 

 exploratory surveys made in 1957 and 1958 (Hig- 

 man 1959; Bullis and Thompson 1959). Thereafter 

 the fishery expanded rapidly and soon included 

 vessels of other nations. The history of the fishery 

 through 1959, and a description of the fishing 

 grounds, species, fishing fleets, and stock status, is 

 given by Naidu and Boerema (1972). 



'Contribution No. 481 from the Southeast Fisheries Center, 

 Miami Laboratory, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, 

 Miami, Fla. 



2 Southeast Fisheries Center Miami Laboratory, National 

 Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, 75 Virginia Beach Drive, 

 Miami, FL 33149. 



Manuscript accepted March 1977. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 75, NO. 4, 1977. 



This report is based on data collected in 1972-74 

 from U.S.-flag vessels and from processing plants 

 under the terms of the bilateral United States- 

 Brazil Shrimp Agreement. This paper evaluates 

 and reviews the status of the fishery based on 

 analysis of these data. Information from process- 

 ing plant records before 1972 is also used. 



The United States-Brazil Shrimp Agreement of 

 1972 dealt with conservation of shrimp resources 

 and operations of U.S. shrimp vessels off northern 

 Brazil (Allen 1973). The agreement stated that the 

 information on catch and effort, and biological 

 data relating to the shrimp fishery in that area, be 

 collected from U.S. vessels. Similar agreements 

 were effected between Brazil and Barbados, 

 Surinam, and Trinidad and Tobago. 



SOURCES OF DATA AND METHODS 



Catch data for U.S. vessels came from logbooks 

 and landing records for July 1972- December 1974 

 (Figure 2; Appendix Table 1). Logbook records 

 were submitted for approximately 509c of the 

 fishing trips, but this percentage varied monthly 

 from 10% at the beginning of data collection to 

 809c later in the period. Landing records were 

 submitted for all trips. Information on area of cap- 



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