Abundance of rock shrimp, Sicyonia brevirostris (Stimpson) in Texas

In recent years commercial interest in the use of the rock shrimp (Sicyonia brevirostris) as a new food souce has increased. Samples were taken with 13.7 m (45ft.) wide otter trawls in the Gulf of Mexico from Port Isabel to Galveston to locate rock shrimp, to delineate their areas of abundance and to evaluate their commercial potential in Texas. Rock shrimp were most numerous at bottom depths between 48 m (26fm) and 57 m (31fm) southeast of Freeport, where the best catch was 6.3 kg/h (14 lb/h). Rock shrimp along probably cannot support a fishery, but they may supplement the brown shrimp fishery if stable markets are created.