Studies on. RearbJg of Penaeld Shrimp during the Nursery Phase

Abstract

Crustacea take over a significant position within Egyptian fisheries. Shrimp is considered among the most important crustacean species due to its high nutritive and economic value as compared with others. Ultimately, penaeid shrimp support substantial commercial fisheries in Egyptian waters especially Penaeus japonicus, P semisu/catus and P. kerathurus. Both P. japonicus and P semisu/catus immigrated from Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean

through Suez Canal to Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea. While P. kerathurus has a Mediterranean origin (Drs Bella eta/., 2002).

FAO statistics assured that the world market demand for shrimp exceed the shrimp catch (FAO, 2000). Similarly, in Egypt, shrimp production has been declined from 9700 ton at 1999 to 9474 ton at 2000. The Egyptian shrimp production was represented as 46.5% in terms of capture/fish in Mediterranean, 28.1% in Red Sea and 25.4% in lakes (GAFARD, 2000). The deterioration of shrimp production in Egyptian waters may be imputed to some environmental changes such as these resulted from Nile River darning (Wadie and Abdel Razek, 1985), pollution (Daniel, 1994) and overfishing (Pillay, 1990). As a result of declining and meager recorded production percentage, the natural shrimp production suffers an evident shortage in filling the gap of local market demand.