Perspective of the pink shrimp (Farfantepenaeus duorarum burkenroad) fishery of Campeche Bank, Mexico

The pink shrimp, Farfantepenaeus duorarum, fishery of Campeche Bank, Mexico , was analyzed in order to characterize it and to test the effect of differ ent fishing intensities upon the stock. Catch data consisted of the number of shrimp per commercial class for the 1986-1993 period. A virtual populati on analysis structured by age was applied to determine seasonal recruitment and fishing mortality patterns with respect to age, as well as the stock-r ecruitment relationship. With these results, an age-structured deterministi c simulation model was developed, which diagnosed the fishery and defined t he effects of different exploitation scenarios by considering changes in fi shing mortality. Results show that the decreasing catch tendency through th e period of analysis is related to recruitment failures. The analysis indic ated that a way to mitigate the low recruitment problem is to control and r educe fishing mortality. but stock density will continue to decrease if the current fishing intensity is maintained.