40 
NOAA 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
Fishery Bulletin 
ftr established 1881 ■<?. 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U.S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Economic valuation of stock enhancement of 
banana prawn iFenneropenaeus merguiensis ) 
in the Strait of Hormuz 
Email address for contact author: nniamaimandi@yahoo.com 
Abstract — Economic return was es- 
timated for the stock enhancement 
of banana prawns (Fenneropenaeus 
merguiensis) released in waters of 
the Strait of Hormuz along the coast 
of Hormozgan Province in Iran. 
Of the 4.7 million juvenile banana 
prawns that were cultured and re- 
leased during the period of June- 
July 2010, 50,000 were marked by 
injection with red fluorescent elas- 
tomer. During the fishing season in 
November 2010, 11 marked prawns 
were recovered (a recovery rate of 
0.022%). The mean weight of marked 
prawns at release and recovery was 
1.08 g (± standard deviation [SD] 
0.1) and 22.06 g (SD 4.9), respec- 
tively, representing a growth rate 
that ranged from 0.88 to 1.41 g 
weeks’ 1 . On the basis of the number 
of prawns released and the recovery 
rate, the shrimp catch in Hormozgan 
in 2010 was estimated to be about 
1034 released prawns with a mean 
weight of about 22.80 kg. The pro- 
duction cost for 4.7 million prawns 
was USD 18,800, and the local mar- 
ket value of landed prawns was USD 
3.440 kg -1 . Therefore, the total value 
of the estimated 1034 landed prawns 
was USD 77.50, indicating a profit 
to production ratio of 0.0041. These 
results, particularly the percentage 
of recaptured prawns, shows that 
this type of release operation is not 
economically feasible. 
Manuscript submitted 22 June 2013. 
Manuscript accepted 12 November 2014. 
Fish. Bull. 113:40-46 (2015). 
doi: 10.7755/FB.113.1.4 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Nassir Niamaimandi (contact author ) 1 
Gholam-Abbas Zarshenas 2 
1 Iran Shrimp Research Institute 
P.O. Box 1374 
Bushehr, Iran 
2 Iranian Fisheries Research Organization 
Karaj-Pykanshahr 
Sarvenaz St. 
P.O. Box 14155-6116 
Tehran, Iran 
The development of the penaeid 
prawn trawl fishery along the Ira- 
nian coast of the Persian Gulf began 
in 1959 (Van Zalinge, 1984). Shrimp 
fishing activities by large-scale in- 
dustrial fleets expanded rapidly, and 
technology later adapted to artisanal 
fisheries. Shrimp fishing effort along 
other Gulf countries soon followed: 
Saudi Arabia in 1963, Bahrain in 
1966, Kuwait in 1967, and Qatar 
in 1969. Maximum shrimp landings 
reached 9600 metric tons (t) in Iran 
for the period of 1964-1965 and 3335 
t for Kuwait in 1966-1967, and in- 
dustrial landings reported by Saudi 
Arabia and Bahrain peaked at 7400 
t in 1973-1974 (Van Zalinge, 1984). 
The period of 1959-1969 was a 
boom phase for the industrial shrimp 
fisheries that was characterized by 
high catch rates, increased land- 
ings, and the establishment of new 
companies. In the late 1970s, shrimp 
catches in the Persian Gulf declined 
dramatically, and, as a result of that 
decrease, several fishing companies 
ceased activities in 1979 (FAO 1 ). In- 
1 FAO. 1981. Report of the third ses- 
sion of the Indian Ocean Fishery Com- 
mission for the development and man- 
creased fishing effort, lower catch 
rates, and competition with passive 
types of fishing techniques gradu- 
ally led to regulatory management 
measures. These included a reduc- 
tion in fishing effort, temporal and 
spatial closures, and, in some cases, 
total closures of shrimp fisheries. To- 
day, the shrimp fishery in Iranian 
waters of the Persian Gulf has input 
and output controls of limited entry, 
closed seasons, and closed areas. The 
opening and closure of the fishery 
( i.e. , duration of the fishing season) 
are flexible. Opening time is based 
on preseason surveys for estimates 
of abundance and catch per unit of 
effort (CPUE) of shrimp, and time 
of closure is based on the trend of 
CPUE (kilograms per boat-days) dur- 
ing the fishing season or a final catch 
rate. 
Although more than 16 different 
species of penaeid prawn are found 
in the Iranian waters of the Persian 
Gulf (Niamaimandi, 2006), only 5 
species are presently of commercial 
agement of the fishery resources of the 
Gulfs, Doha, Qatar, 28-30 September 
1980. FAO Fish. Rep.FAO-FID-R247, 
46 p. 
