Short commentary on the population structure of Deepsea Shrimp, Aristeus alcocki from India.

Abstract

According to FAO, shrimp production in India increased by 10% in 2018, due to the suitable climatic conditions and development of the fishery. Arabian red shrimp (Aristeus alcocki) is one of the important crustacean resources found in Indian seas. It has inhabited in the deep-sea regions and is widely distributed along the south-east and south-west coast of India with the depth of 200-3100 m. This shrimp is a highly perishable product in the export market, which has a shorter lifespan (6-7 years), compared to fishes, as a result, presence of high volume of free amino acids and other soluble nonnitrogenous substances. During earlier days, the landings of this shrimp was observed in more than ten major fishing harbours along the Indian coast, however in the later years, it is noticed only in Kerala and Tamil Nadu coasts. Conversely even now, more than 80% landings of this deep sea shrimp were observed from Sakthikulangara harbour of Kerala and there is no landing was noticed in Mumbai, Mangalore and Visakhapatnam coasts. The landing of recent years (2008 - 2017) were indicate that, the A. alcocki is the major species in order of biomass among the deep-sea penaeoid catch from the whole Indian coast. However trend in catch rates of the A. alcocki was showed declining phase during year of 2015-2016. The present study on “Investigation of genetic diversity and stock structure of Aristeus alcocki populations in the Indian coast” is providing baseline information, which is useful for the policy development and sustainable management of the resources in the future.