Don Kelly's Ozello Shrimper | Recreational Shrimping Equipment and Information

The following report was created by the United States Department of the Interior in 1968 by Carl Saloman, a Fisheries Biologist at the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological Laboratory in St. Petersburg, Florida after a 17 month long research program into shrimp in Tampa Bay.

The research focused on Egmont Key and Old Tampa Bay and came to the following extremely interesting conclusions:

Pink shrimp, Penaeus duorarum , were sampled for 17 months in two divergent habitats in Tamp Bay, Fla. Information was obtained on size and sex of the shrimp,water temperature, salinity, light transmission, and activity in relation to moon phase. Catches were larger during darkness and rose as temperature decreased from about 30° C. to 14° C. Larger shrimp were caught in darkness than in daylight throughout the period. Larger shrimp were also caught at the station having lowest salinity and incidence of transmitted light. In dark phases of the moon greater numbers of shrimp were caught than during light phases. The size of shrimp reached a peak in April and May after an average increase in length of about 1 mm. carapace length per month. Female shrimp were larger than males in all samples except two.

This report focuses primarily on the Central West region of Florida but also provides information about additional information in other parts of the country and state.

You can read the full report online here: http://www.archive.org/stream/specialscientifi561usfi#page/n5/mode/2up

Or,

You can download it here:  Diel and Seasonal Occurrence of Pink Shrimp Penaeus duorarum Burkenroad, in Two Divergent Habitats of Tampa Bay, Florida (462 Kb) - 01/01/1968