| As frequent cold fronts mark the upcoming winter season, it also marks the beginning of the end to the fall white shrimp season. With each passing cold front and shorter daylight hours, coastal waters begin to cool. Adult and sub-adult shrimp sense these changes and migrate en-masse to offshore waters.
Shrimp are cold blooded animals, which mean their body temperatures are the same as the surrounding water. In cooler waters, their metabolism (and growth rate) slows significantly compared to the warm waters of July through September.
Because of the white shrimp’s long spawning season, which occurs from late May to November, they occur within the coastal estuaries in all stages of their life cycle this time of year. But later spawned shrimp do not grow as fast in the cool fall temperatures, therefore they will not reach adult or sub-adult sizes before being forced to migrate offshore by colder temperatures. These shrimp overwinter in near shore waters of the Gulf, growing very little until waters warm again in the spring.
In addition to their value to commercial fisheries, shrimp are important in estuarine and offshore food webs. The interactions of many different living, growing organisms with each other and the physical environment shape a shrimp’s niche (i.e., its role in the environment, the species it interacts with, and its environmental requirements for food and shelter).
For additional information on white shrimp and a diagram of their lifecycle, visit the Louisiana Sea Grant website at: www.seagrantfish.lsu.edu/biological/shrimpniche.htm
Back
to Main |
