600 - 

 5 8 0- 

 5 6 — 

 5 4 0- 

 5 2 

 5 



MALE 

 FEMALE 



T — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — i" T'l 'T" 1 



CARAPACE LENGTH (MM.) 



Figure 3. — Length frequency of 9,145 bait shrimp from Old Tampa Bay and lower Tampa Bay. 



The continuing destruction of grass beds 

 in the estuaries is eliminating the Tampa 

 Bay nursery for pink shrimp. The necessity 

 of aquatic vegetation (sea grasses and algae) 

 to the survival of small penaeid shrimp has 

 been established by the following authors: 

 Williams (1955), Woodburn et al. (1957), de 

 Sylva (1954), Allen and Inglis (1958), Hutton 

 et al, (1956), Hoese (1960), Phillips (1960b), 

 Woodburn (1959), Hildebrand (1955), and Tabb, 

 Dubrow, and Manning (1962). 



The effect of the removal of sea grass 

 from a marine habitat was noted by Stauffer 

 (1937) along the Massachusetts coast. He 

 found that after eelgrass, Zostera marina , 

 disappeared almost all the animals living on 

 or in the grass vanished. About one- third of 

 the characteristic species disappeared en- 



tirely; the remaining burrowing species be- 

 came dominant; and no new species appeared. 

 Shrimp are not the only fauna of importance 

 intimately associated with estuaries. Power 

 (1962) showed that 1,131 million pounds (513 

 million kg.), or 89.3 percent of the Gulf of 

 Mexico commercial catch of fish and shellfish 

 consisted of five estuarine-dependent animals 

 (shrinnp, crabs, oysters, menhaden, and mul- 

 let). Sykes (1964) stated that at least 24 of 

 the important species landed in the Gulf of 

 Mexico fisheries reside in Tampa Bay during 

 part of their early lives. Hutton et al. (1956) 

 also mentioned that Boca Ciega Bay produced 

 commercially 1,186,937 pounds (538,383 kg.) 

 of fish and supported 17 boat dealers and 

 boat repair shops with gross sales of $786,706. 

 The gross sales from over 200 fishing tackle 



11 



