48 September 2009 Table 3a. The most important species in the Atlantic. Species with high catches are indicated with bold letters for the area. The Atlantic Various areas Species Common name acc. to FAO divisions P. aztecus Northern brown shrimp NW, WC P. setiferus Northern white shrimp NW, WC P. duorarum Northern pink shrimp NW,WC P. brasiliensis Red spotted shrimp SW P. paulensis Sao Paolo shrimp SW P. notialis Southern pink shrimp EC P. kerathurus Caramote prawn Mediterranean and Black Seas P. japonicus Kuruma prawn Mediterranean and Black Seas Table 3b. Dominant Penaeus species in various parts of the Pacific and the Indian Ocean according to FAO statistics for 2004. Species with high catches are indicated with bold letters for the area. The Pacific P. chinensis Fleshy prawn NW P. japonicus Kuruma prawn NW P. penicillatus Redtail prawn NW P. merguensis Banana prawn WC P. monodon Giant tiger prawn WC P. semisulcatus Green tiger prawn WC P. latisulcatus Western king prawn WC P. brevirostris Crystal shrimp EC P. californiensis Yellow leg shrimp EC P. occidentalis Western white shrimp SE The Indian Ocean P.monodon Giant tiger prawn W+E P. semisulcatus Green tiger prawn W+E P. merguensis Banana prawn E P. latisulcatus Western king prawn E lion t were cultivated and 0.8 million t were captured. The catches of other shrimp species, mainly in temperate and tropical areas, was 3.5 times larger. There are about 20 different species in the family Penaeidae that are commercial. Some species reach large size, such as the giant tiger prawn, which can reach a length of 360 mm. In Table 2, the 15 most prominent countries involved in the shrimp fishery are shown. The table also shows the most common species for each country. About 110 countries reported that they were fishing for this type of shrimp (FAO 2006a). However, only six countries took very large catches and their share of the total yield was 79 percent in 2004. India caught 182,000 t, USA 122,000 t, Indonesia 106,000 t, China 99,000 t, Thailand 66,000 t and Mexico 58,000 t. All the other countries caught 170,000 t in total. There are three species in the catches that are important: giant tiger prawn, banana prawn and fleshy prawn. The species caught in various oceans are listed in Tables 3a and 3b. In the Atlantic and adjacent areas, northern (Continued on page 50) brown shrimp and northern white shrimp are important species, especially in the Caribbean. The two species totaled around 56,000 t. In the same area, the catches of northern pink shrimp was about 8600 t. In South America, red spotted shrimp is rather important with catches around 6000 t, while Saõ Paulo shrimp is of minor importance. Southern pink shrimp is an important species outside western Africa, with catches in 2004 of 13,000 t. The only important species in the Mediterranean was caramote prawn, where catches reached nearly 6,000 t. Thus, the total yield in 2004 in the Atlantic was close to 150,000 t. There are 10 important commercial species in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. None of those species are found in the catches of the Atlantic vessels, except Kuruma prawn, which was introduced into the Mediterranean Sea from the Pacific. The most important species is giant tiger prawn, which occurs in both the Indian and Pacific with a yield of 200,000 t in 2004. Another species of great importance is fleshy prawn in the NW Pacific with annual catches of about 100,000 t. The catches of Kuruma prawn and redtail prawn in the NW Pacific were small, while the catches of banana prawn were about of 90,000 t in the Pacific and Indian Oceans together. Western king prawn was of little importance as was yellow leg shrimp, crystal shrimp and western white shrimp. The conclusion is, thus, that only four species are of great importance in the two oceans: fleshy prawn, banana prawn, giant tiger prawn and green tiger prawn. In addition to the catch totals attributed to those species, about 200,000 t were fished, but reported only as Penaeus spp. Northern Prawn (Pandalus borealis) is the most important cold water shrimp species in the Atlantic with a catch of nearly 450,000 tons in 2004. (Photo by Matz Berggren)
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