Biology and fishery of seabob shrimp in the northeastern states of Brazil, without a regulatory period of closure

Abstract

The biological sample and the production and catch data were collected during the period January 2008 to December 2009, from the haul of the motorized trawling fleet. The shrimp Xiphopenaeus kroyeri was studied in four locations: Porto do Mangue (RN), Baí­­a Formosa (RN), Cabedelo (PB) and Recife (PE). There were sampled 14,400 specimens, with 6,267 males and 8,133 females, whose average cephalotorax length was 16.4 mm and 17.8 mm respectively. Around 92.4% of the females were adults; the average length of the cephalotorax of first gonadal maturation females was approximately 13.5 mm; the average production per unit effort (CPUE) was 5.3 kg/trawling hour. In the locations studied, the main period of recruitment was from February to June. A shrimping season brings economic, biological and ecological benefits, however on the Brazilian coast it is not applied in the states of Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraí­­ba and Pernambuco. This study recommends that Ceará introduce the same shrimping season as the rest of northern Brazil, and that for the other states, the shrimping season should be as in the states of Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia.