total catch. The shrimp of this genus are tropical, or subtropical, 

 coastal or shallow-vjater forms. Most, but probably not all, require 

 brackish vrater during the juvenile phase of their life cycle. Spawning 

 occurs at sea and the recently hatched shrimp move to coastal or inland 

 brackish waters. Grovrth is rapid, and as the shrimp approach maturity 

 they return to the sea. Life is short, in most species not exceed 2 or 

 3 years. Some species do not live much beyond the first year owing 

 principally to intensive fishing. 



In continental Latin America, commercial fisheries for members 

 of the genus Penaeus extend along the eastern coast from the Gulf of 

 Mexico to southern Brazil and on the Pacific from Baja California to 

 northern Peru. The southern limit see/as to be along the coasts of 

 Uruguay and Peru. The distribution of the species is by no means uniform 

 throughout this range. There are vast stretches of coast along which 

 the shrimp populations are very sparse or are concentrated in patches 

 in widely scattered areas. This is particularly true of the east coast; 

 of which all of the continental shores bathed by the Caribbean Sea and 

 the area off the coast of Brazil, from about the eastern boundary of the 

 State of Maranhao to at least Salvador, are examples. 



In certain areas, Penaeus does not seem to be able to compete 

 with other, smaller shrimp. The sea bob, Xiphopeneus kroyeri , apparently 

 almost completely dominates the coastal nursery grounds from near the 

 mouth of the Amazon to about the eastern border of British Guiana. In 

 British Guiana (and probably extending north throughout the delta of the 

 Orinoco 1/) still smaller shrimp, ^alaemon schmitti and Hippolysmata 

 oplothoroides, seem to have displaced the sea bob. 



1/ Reports of exploratory fishing in the Gulf of Paria aiid off the 

 Orinoco Delta have not indicated any large concentrations, as normally 

 would be expected, of eithf-r PenaeuG or Xiphopeneus. 



