Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Research (Jun 2024)

Comparative biological aspects of deep-water shrimps Aristaeomorpha foliacea (Risso, 1827) and Aristeus antennatus (Risso, 1816) (Decapoda, Aristeidae) in the Egyptian Mediterranean water

  • Hamdy Omar Ahmed,
  • Evelyn Ragheb,
  • Abeer El-Samman,
  • Somaya Mahfouz,
  • Fatma A. Abdel Razek

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 50, no. 2
pp. 282 – 292

Abstract

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The current study provides information on deep-water shrimps, Aristaeomorpha foliacea and Aristeus antennatus, which are trawled in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea off Damietta, Egypt, between January 2019 and December 2019. The catch comprised 62.68% of A. foliacea with a range from 16 to 65 mm in carapace length (CL) and 37.32% of A. antennatus with a range from 17 to 57 mm in CL. The overall sex ratio of females to males was 1.00:0.22 for A. foliacea and 1.00:0.47 for A. antennatus. Studying the length-weight relationship (LWR) revealed that A. foliacea and A. antennatus, females, males, and combined sexes, had negative allometric growth. Abdomen weight- total body weight relationship showed that A. antennatus had bigger mean abdomen weight indices than A. foliacea for females, males, and combined sexes. Age was studied based on the Bhattacharya length frequency method and four cohort age groups were predicted for A. antennatus and six cohort age groups for A. foliacea. The second cohort was the dominant age group for both species. For combined sexes, the von Bertalanffy growth parameters were K = 0.244, to = −0.072, and L∞ = 77.109 mm (CL) for A. foliacea, and K = 0.246, to = −0.689, and L∞ = 67.688 mm (CL) for A. antennatus. Total mortality (Z), natural mortality (M) and fishing mortality (F) were calculated as: Z = 0.670, M = 0.423, and F = 0.247 for A. foliacea, and Z = 1.295, M = 0.441, and F = 0.854 for A. antennatus. The exploitation ratio (E) revealed that the stock of A. foliacea was rationally exploited (E = 0.368) and the stock of A. antennatus was over-exploited (E = 0.659). At the current level of explotation, 39.23% of A. foliacea stock biomass and 15.35% of A. antennatus stock biomass were protected. Further studies are recommended to shed lights on the reproductive biology of these deep-water shrimp species.

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