The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological 

 Laboratory, Gaheston, Tex. 77550, was established in 

 1*)50 on the site of the U.S. Army's deactivated Fort 

 Crockett. There are 59 employees, of whom 33 are 

 professionals. The Marine Laboratory of Texas A&M 

 Uni\-ersity is adjacent to this Laboratory, and there is 

 a free exchange of knowledge between staff members 

 of the two installations. 



I'acilities at the BCF Laborator\ include a library, 

 recirculating and constant-ffow sea-water systems, four 

 large controlled-temperature rooms, culture rooms, a 

 small greenhouse for the culture of algae, outdoor arti- 

 ficial ponds for shrimp culture, a sedimentology labor- 

 atory, a chemical laboratory, and small boats for estu- 

 arine work. A large sea-water station is at East Lagoon, 

 4 miles from the Laboratory, and a field station is 

 maintained at Miami, Fla. 



The major research of the Laboratory is directed at 

 commercially important species of shrimp in the Gulf 

 of Mexico through four research programs: (1) 

 Shrimp Dynamics; (2) Shrimp Aquaculture; (3) 

 Estuarine Studies; and (4) Gulf Oceanography. The 

 programs are designed to: determine growth, survival, 

 and movements of shrimp stocks; determine the maxi- 

 mum yield of the stocks of shrimp by deciding what size 

 the shrimp should be when they are harvested; refine 

 the methods dexeloped for predicting the abundance of 



Shrimp that arc caught, stained or tagged, and released on the 

 fishing grounds by biologists provide information on migration, 

 growth, and mortality when recaptured by fisherman and re- 

 turned to the biologist. These men are staining shrimp aboard a 

 shrimp trawler. 



