REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 



George A. Rounsefell 



Research Highlights of the Past Year Experiments in marking shrimp at 



sea by staining proved highly successful. With this new tool, we were able 

 to mark and release shrimp carefully graded as to size. The analysis of the 

 data from several hundred recaptured by the shrimp fleet dennonstrated that 

 the pink shrimp (Penaeus duorarum) grow very fast. Nevertheless, the mor- 

 tality rate is so high that a larger total harvest can be made if fishing for 

 them commences at relatively small sizes. 



By means of counts of postlarval shrimp entering Galveston Bay 

 during the spring of I960, 1961, and 196Z, and data on the catch per unit of 

 effort of resulting juvenile shrimp in the Galveston Bay system, we were 

 able to predict in late spring that the abundance of shrimp in 1962 would ex- 

 ceed that of 1961, and might equal that of I960. 



Two of the stained pink shrimp released on the Sanibel Island 

 grounds were recovered 116 days later on the northwest portion of the Tor- 

 tugas Grounds, showing that these two grounds may not have discrete popula- 

 tions. 



The increased funds obtained in 1961 allowed us to commence si- 

 multaneous biological and hydrographical sampling on the continental shelf 

 out to 60 fathoms along an 800 -mile stretch of coastline from Brownsville, 

 Tex., to the Mississippi delta. It is hoped that these data, if collected for 

 several years, will show the causes for the year-to-year variations in the 

 survival of the larval forms of shrimp. 



Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission The Commission has continued 



to support research to aid in solving industry problems and has been instru- 

 mental in obtaining increased resources for research. The Commission has 

 fornned a committee of biologists from each of the participating states and the 

 Bureau of Connmercial Fisheries to meet under its sponsorship to discuss 

 research problems and to aid in the standardization of research techniques. 



Shift in Pesticide Program Over the past 2 years, small programs on the 



effects of pesticides were carried on at Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Bio- 

 logical Laboratories both at Galveston, Tex. , and Gulf Breeze, Fla. With in- 

 creased emphasis to be placed on this important work, it is being concentrated 

 at Gulf Breeze and has been discontinued at Galveston. 



Termination of Red-Tide Field Operations Research on red tide was thrust 



upon the Bureau after the severe red-tide outbreak along the west coast of 

 Florida in 1947. At that time, even the identity of the causative organism was 

 unknown. Public hysteria (caused both by the littering of the beaches with 

 millions of dead fish and the irritating effect on the lungs and throat of the 

 toxin carried as an aerosol) demanded immediate action, and a great deal of 



