Spawning stock-recruitment relationships of pink shrimp Farfantepenaeus duorarum in the southern Gulf of Mexico

The spawning stock-recruitment relationships (SRR) of pink shrimp Farfantepenaeus duorarum in the Campeche Sound, southern Gulf of Mexico, was analyzed based on abundance of adults (7 mo and older) and recruits (3 mo) from 1969 to 1994. The SSR model used was that of Beverton and Holt and its modification incorporating sea surface temperature. Adults from April to August and recruits from July to November were defined as the cohort I, and adults from September to March and recruits from December to June as cohort II. Additionally adults from July to June and recruits from October to September were considered as representative of the biological year. Results suggests a higher dependence of recruitment on environmental conditions for cohort I. Though the number of recruits is similar for both cohorts, the adult abundance of cohort II is approximately twice those of cohort I, suggesting differences in SSR between cohorts. Great contrast of stock levels and environmental conditions (SST) in the 22-yr series reduce the risk of time-series biases and of autocorrelation in the recruitment levels, and allows assumption that the SSR for the pink shrimp in the southern Gulf of Mexico is not spurious.