A survey of brown shrimp resources in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, 1961-1965

A sampling program was conducted during 1961-65 to measure the general distribution and abundance of shrimp resources off the Texas and Louisiana coasts. Samples were taken monthly with standard commercial shrimping gear along 10 transects at depths ranging from 14 to 110 m. Due to limitations of sampling, analysis of brown shrimp abundance data detected no significant differences between years, although 1961, 1962 and 1964 were historically low abundance years for brown shrimp. Generally, brown shrimp were most abundant at the 27 m stations during spring and summer, and moved progressively deeper during autumn and winter, when they were most abundant at 64 m stations. Brown shrimp were more abundant off the Texas coast than off the Louisiana coast. Distributions were similar to recent surveys of the area. Female shrimp predominated in most catches, with an overall sex ratio of 1.20 during the study. Night catches were generally higher than day catches. Due to the diel differences in catchability, all shrimp sampling occurs at night during current surveys. by R.A. Neal, H.A. Brusher, and L.F. Sullivan. "May 1983." Also available online in PDF format via the NOAA Central Library. Includes bibliographical references. 1983 NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) SEFSC (Southeast Fisheries Science Center) Library Public Domain 1864