A review of biological patterns of the blue-red shrimp Aristeus antennatus in the Mediterranean Sea: a case study of the population of Antalya Bay, eastern Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

© 2016 CSIC.During three surveys between September 2009 and June 2011, a total of 20867 specimens of A. antennatus were caught from the 127 successful hauls with a total towing time of 219.5 h. Carapace length ranged between 12-61 mm for females (mean length, 35.8±8.2 mm) and 14-35 mm for males (24.8±3.4 mm). The two-way MANOVA shoved that depth had a significant effect on the abundance (p<0.05) and biomass (p<0.01) indices. However, season showed an insignificantly effect on both indices. The highest values of abundance and biomass were obtained in the depth stratum of 500 m. There was a statistically significant difference in the overall sex ratio from the expected 1:1 (p<0.05). The highest percentages of mature adult females (carapace length >27 mm) were recorded in June, July and August. The monthly gonadosomatic index of A. antennatus females changed seasonally, reaching a maximum value between July and August. The length-weight relationships in female and male specimens exhibited a strong negative allometry. The monthly length-frequency distributions showed that females of A. antennatus exhibited a maximum of six modal size groups per year. The recruitment of young-of-the-year took place mainly between January-April. The fishing mortality, reference point (F0.1) of fisheries mortality and exploitation rate were 0.498 year−1, 0.444 year−1 and 0.524 year−1, respectively. The fishery activity and the biological aspects of A. antennatus in the Antalya Bay have a lot of common and non-common points with other areas of the Mediterranean Sea. The above-mentioned differences could be attributed to the different oceanographic and environmental parameters in the present study area.