Figure 4. — The presence of a spermatophore (white arrow) in a male brown shrimp reared In a pond indicates 



approaching sexual maturity. 



the banks and levees. By the first of February, 

 we had transplanted successfully salt marsh- 

 grass, Spartina alterniflora ; rush marsh- 

 grass, S^. patens; and salt-grass, Distichlis 

 spicata , on several banks and levees. On 

 February 14, tides about 1 m. (3 ft.) above mean 

 water flooded our ponds. Our experimental 

 shrimp were lost, and banks and levees not 

 protected by nnarsh-grass were damaged ex- 

 tensively (fig. 5). Our bank stabilization work 

 continued this summer. 



Ray S. Wheeler, Project Leader 



Experimental Seeding 



To develop and refine techniques for experi- 

 mental seeding of shrimp in Florida Bay, we 

 reared pink shrimp in the laboratory from the 

 egg to juvenile stage. 



We caught gravid female pink shrimp on the 

 Tortugas grounds and transported them to 

 TABL. in Miami. Several shrimp spawned, and 

 the viable eggs developed in a 1,890-liter 

 (500-gallon) tank. Following techniques devised 

 at the Biological Laboratory, Galveston, we 



reared about 26,000 pink shrimp postlarvae; 

 however, we cancelled our plans to place this 

 group of postlarvae in a selected seeding site 

 in northeast Florida Bay. 



Some of the 26,000 postlarvae were pre- 

 served for study, whereas others perished 

 because of crowded conditions in the rearing 

 tanks as the size of the shrimp increased. We 

 gave Florida State University one group of 

 about 6,000 postlarvae for use in nutrition 

 studies by graduate students. These shrimp 

 were transported by automobile to Tallahassee 

 where they arrived in good condition. An 

 additional 3,000 to 4,000 postlarvae, 7 to 15 mm. 

 (0.3 - 0.6 inch) long, were placed in a sea- 

 water reservoir tank at the TABL on Septem- 

 ber 9, 1968. They survived well on the natural 

 food growing in the tank or entering the tank 

 with the incoming water. We sampled these 

 shrimp on December 3, 1968; they were 36 to 

 69 mm. (1.4 - 2.7 inches) long. 



In August 1968, after 32 months of sampling, 

 we stopped taking quantitative samples of 

 planktonic postlarval shrimp (mostly pink 

 shrimp) entering Florida Bay via Whale Harbor 

 Channel (Islamorada, Fla.). Analysis of past 



10 



