Prawns and Shrimps Collected from the Kii Strait by Small Type Trawlers

Based upon 114, 000 specimens of prawns and shrimps collected by several small type trawlers from eight localities of the Kii Strait along Wakayama Prefecture, their species composition and comparative abundance as well as the population movement of some commercially important species are revealed. They consisted of 20 species of Penaeidae and 17 species of 6 caridean families. Of these, Metapenaeopsis palmensis is new to Japanese fauna, and Periclimenes tosaensis, Processa kotiensis and Nikoides sibogae prove to be recorded for the first time from the Kill Strait. The dominant species is Trachypenaeus curvirostris in the northern part, Metapenaeopsis barbata from north to middle of the strait, M. palmensis in Tanabe Bay only and Plesionika izumiae in the central part of the strait. Other characteristic species, though not so common, occur in each locality. The two dominant species, T. curvirostris and M. barbata, decrease in number from spring to summer, but there seem to be two peaks of the fluctuation of their catches. One peak appears from spring to summer and may depend upon an increase of the body weight and the other is probably caused by the new recruitments in autumn.