Commercial Species
Although there are thousands of species of shrimp worldwide, only about 20 of these species are commercially significant. The following table contains the principal commercial shrimp, the seven most harvested species. All of them are decapods; most of them belong to the Dendrobranchiata and four of them are penaeid shrimp.
| Principal commercial shrimp species | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group | Common name | Scientific name | Description | Max length (mm) | Depth (m) | Habitat | FAO | WoRMS | 2010 production (thousand tonnes) | |||
| wild | farmed | total | ||||||||||
| Dendrobranchiata | Whiteleg shrimp | Litopenaeus vannamei | The most extensively farmed species of shrimp. Listed on the Greenpeace seafood redlist. | 230 | 0–72 | marine, estuarine | 1 | 2721 | 2722 | |||
| Giant tiger prawn | Penaeus monodon | Listed on the Greenpeace seafood redlist. | 336 | 0–110 | marine, estuarine | 210 | 782 | 992 | ||||
| Akiami paste shrimp | Acetes japonicus | Most intensively fished species. They are small with black eyes and red spots on the uropods. Only a small amount is sold fresh, most is dried, salted or fermented. | 30 | shallow | marine | 574 | 574 | |||||
| Southern rough shrimp | Trachysalambria curvirostris | Easier to catch at night, and fished only in waters less than 60 m (200 ft) deep. Most of the harvest is landed in China. | 98 | 13–150 | marine | 294 | 294 | |||||
| Fleshy prawn | Fenneropenaeus chinensis | Trawled in Asia where it is sold frozen. Exported to Western Europe. Cultured by Japan and South Korea in ponds. | 183 | 90–180 | marine | 108 | 45 | 153 | ||||
| Banana prawn | Fenneropenaeus merguiensis | Typically trawled in the wild and frozen, with most catches made by Indonesia. Commercially important in Australia, Pakistan and the Persian Gulf. Cultured in Indonesia and Thailand. In India it tends to be confused with Fenneropenaeus indicus, so its economic status is unclear. | 240 | 10–45 | marine, estuarine | 93 | 20 | 113 | ||||
| Caridea | Northern prawn | Pandalus borealis | Widely fished since the early 1900s in Norway, and later in other countries following Johan Hjort's practical discoveries of how to locate them. They have a short life which contributes to a variable stock on a yearly basis. They are not considered overfished. | 165 | 20–1380 | marine | 361 | 361 | ||||
| All other species | 1490 | 220 | 1710 | |||||||||
| Combined total | 3129 | 3788 | 6917 | |||||||||
Famous quotes containing the words commercial and/or species:
“It is only by not paying one’s bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“The principle of avoiding the unnecessary expenditure of energy has enabled the species to survive in a world full of stimuli; but it prevents the survival of the aristocracy.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)