preserve the valuable fishery re- 

 sources. Water certainly is a pre- 

 cious commodity which has long been 

 taken for granted. Water uses must 

 be more efficiently managed. No 

 doubt there are methods of managing 

 flows into estuaries to preserve or 

 even enhance the fisheries. 



As was mentioned above, brown 

 and pink shrimp tend to prefer a 

 higher salinity than do white 

 shrimp. Because brown shrimp tend 

 to dominate the Texas catches the 

 water manager might justify in- 

 creased allocation of surface wa- 

 ter upstream in order to increase 

 the salinity and thereby benefit 

 the brown shrimp. The fallacy in 

 this position is that such actions 

 would be to the detriment of the 

 white shrimp crop. Under the cur- 

 rent situation, the population of 

 brown shrimp and white shrimp tend 

 to complement each other. Much as 

 a farmer planting two crops, if 

 one fails due to unfavorable envi- 

 ronmental conditions the other may 

 be successful enough to carry the 

 farmer to the next season. The 

 major crops in the the case of the 

 Texas shrimp fishery are brown and 

 white shrimp. Although brown 

 shrimp are reported to spawn 

 throughout the year, the high 

 spawning periods are distinct from 

 those of the pink or white shrimp. 

 The staggered nature of peak 

 spawning periods between the avail- 

 able species allows for the pos- 

 sibility of maintaining vitality 

 within the resource. Uncontrol- 

 lable environmental conditions may 

 impact one crop but not the other. 



shrimp populations continue to be 

 harvested by the small near-shore 

 operators especially during the fall 

 open season in the bays where white 

 shrimp are predominant in the har- 

 vest. 



The more effective management 

 of inflow to estuaries might be a 

 solution to the ever increasing re- 

 quirements placed on surface water. 

 This effort however, must be based 

 on sufficient information to maintain 

 and enhance the important marine 

 fisheries . 



CONCLUSIONS 



Sufficient information is 

 available to show the importance 

 of freshwater inflow to the vital- 

 ity of the Texas shrimp industry. 

 While ever-increasing requirements 

 are being placed on the surface 

 water resources, the need for bal- 

 anced salinity regimes as well as 

 sufficient nutrient and sediments 

 to maintain a sound habitat should 

 be paramount in the allocation 

 process . 



Water management agencies, fish- 

 ery resource protection agencies and 

 the fishing industry should maintain 

 a close working relationship to in- 

 sure vitality of the estuaries and 

 the significant fisheries resource. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Another consideration in main- 

 taining both the brown and white 

 shrimp populations is the socioeco- 

 nomics of the industry. While it is 

 true that brown shrimp represent the 

 higher level of catch, the white 



Barrett, B.B.; Gillespie, M.C. Pri- 

 mary factors which influence 

 commercial shrimp production 

 in coastal Louisiana. La. Dept. 

 Wildlife and Fish. Tech. Bull. 

 9:28; 1973. 



434 



