The Royal Red Shrimp Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico

The royal red shrimp Hymenopenaeus robustus is targeted by a small commercial fishery operating on the continental slope of the Gulf of Mexico.  Annual landings in this fishery have never exceeded 350,000 pounds of tails equivalents, and the maximum number of vessels participating in this fishery has never exceeded 26.  Landings from 1960 to 2010, suggest alternating patterns of high (1970s, 1990s) and low (1980s, 2000s) landings exhibiting an overall trend of increase for the period of record. The highest peak (350,000 lbs) occurred in 2002.  From 2007 to 2010, we used Electronic Logbook (ELB) data from vessels fishing for royal red shrimp to map the fishing grounds. These ELB-equipped vessels made 47 trips representing 40% (2010) to 75% (2009) of the total landings. The fishery is strongly associated with the 500-m (approximate) depth contour and is most intense in three areas of the eastern Gulf of Mexico.  The northernmost fishing grounds occur from offshore the Mississippi River delta to just east of Perdido Bay, Florida. The next area occurs further south, bounded on the north by about 28.5° N and on the south by about 26.5° N. The southernmost fishing ground lies south of the Dry Tortugas.