Species and Habitat Outlines

Humpback Shrimp
TAXONOMY

Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Crustacea
Order: Decapoda
Family: Pandalidae

 

ECOLOGICAL DATA

Distribution: throughout coastal waters, tends to be more common along north coast.

Habitat: muddy bottoms; planktonic larvae but prefers bottom layer as they develop; remain in shallow bays and inlets during first year due to abundant food supply.

Tidal elevation: 5 to 406 m subtidal depth.

Food: carnivore; mysids, other crustaceans and polychaete worms.

Predators: sand sole.

GROWTH RATE

Shrimp are potandrous hermaphrodites: spend the early part of their lives as males and the remainder as females; as sexually mature males reach 90 mm in March-May and 110 mm in fall of second year; change to females at 2-2.5 yr and measure 90-135 mm; life span is about 3 yr but may live until 4 yr; maximum size is 151 mm for males and 192 mm for females.

FISHERY

Commercial fishery in Masset Inlet, but taken in shrimp fisheries along coast; 1986 total shrimp commercial catch was 768 t valued at $1.2 million.

REFERENCES

Boutillier, J.A. 1986. Shrimp, p. 58-64. In G.S. Jamieson and K. Francis [ed.] Invertebrate and marine plant fishery resources of British Columbia. Can. Spec. Publ. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 91.

Butler, T.H. 1964. Growth, reproduction, and distribution of pandalid shrimps in British Columbia. J. Fish. Res. Board Can. 21: 1403-1452.

Butler, T.H. 1980. Shrimps of the Pacific coast of Canada. Can. Bull. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 202: 143-145.

Butler, T.H., and J. Boutillier. 1983. Selected shrimps of British Columbia. Underwater World, Fish. Oceans Can., Ottawa: 6 p.

Scrivener, J.C., and T.H. Butler. 1971. A bibliography of shrimps of the Family Pandalidae, emphasizing economically important species of the genus Pandalus. Fish. Res. Board Can. Tech. Rep. 241: 42 p.

 

 

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