Scientific basis for the management of penaeid shrimp fishery

A global review of the penaeid shrimp fisheries of the world would show that some of the largest fisheries \nFor shrimp is in the waters off Indonesia, Thailand, India and in the Gulf of Mexico. In fact in the past \nFew years India has reached the top rank in world shrimp production of over 7,00,000 tonnes, of course \nPartly contributed by non-penaeid shrimps also. In most of the areas of large shrimp fisheries the fishery consists of a combination of multispecies. This fact in addition to the unique life history and the resultant population characteristics renders the shrimp fishery management somewhat different in concept than the management of other fisheries. Apart from this the aportioning of the fishing effort between the artisana or small scale fisheries and the mechanised, industrial fisheries always comes into conflict, creating further problems in proper management. The substantial quantities of small fish or trash fish coming in as bycatch in the trawl fisheries, discarded or utilised to a certain extent also causes concern.