whiteleg shrimp

Whiteleg shrimp (''Litopenaeus vannamei'', synonym ''Penaeus vannamei''), also known as Pacific white shrimp or King prawn, is a species of prawn of the eastern Pacific Ocean commonly caught or farmed for food.

Description

''L. vannamei'' grows to a maximum length of , with a carapace length of . Adults live in the ocean, at depths to , while juveniles live in estuaries. The rostrum is moderately long, with 7–10 teeth on the dorsal side and two to four teeth on the ventral side.

Distribution and habitat

Whiteleg shrimp are native to the eastern Pacific Ocean, from the Mexican state of Sonora to as far south as northern Peru. It is restricted to areas where the water temperatures remain above throughout the year.

Fishery and aquaculture

During the 20th century, ''L. vannamei'' was an important species for Mexican inshore fishermen, as well as for trawlers further offshore.
In the late 20th century, the wild fishery was overtaken by the development of aquaculture production; this began in 1973 in Florida using prawns captured in Panama, that were used in hatcheries for larvae production.

In Latin America, the culture of ''L. vannamei'' started to develop with the availability of hatchery larvae, the development of feeds, the technification of the growth processes, the freezing installations and market channels, among others.

From Mexico to Peru most countries developed in the 70s and 80s large production areas.
Ecuador became one of the world leaders producers of this type of shrimp.

Around the beginning of the millennia, Asia introduced this species in their aquaculture operations (changing from ''Penaeus monodon'').
China, Vietnam, India and others have become major packers as well.

The packing of shrimp from aquaculture origin has overpassed the quantity of ocean caught wild shrimp in recent years.
Both origins, ocean caught and aquaculture, are subject to weather changes and diseases.

By 2004, global production of ''L. vannamei'' approached 1,116,000 t, and exceeded that of ''Penaeus monodon''.

''L. vannamei'' have been cultivated indoors through a recirculating aquaculture systems at TransparentSea Farm, a startup in Downey, California.

Weather effect

Normally, there are peaks of production during the warm El Niño years, and reduced production during the cooler La Niña years. The effect is on ocean caught as well as on aquaculture origin.

Diseases

There are several known diseases. Production of ''L. vannamei'' is limited by its susceptibility to white spot syndrome, Taura syndrome, infectious hypodermal and haematopoietic necrosis, baculoviral midgut gland necrosis, and ''Vibrio'' infections.

Impact on nature

In 2010, Greenpeace International added the whiteleg shrimp to its seafood red list.
This lists fish that are commonly sold in supermarkets around the world, and which have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries.Greenpeace International Seafood Red list
/ref> The reasons given by Greenpeace were "destruction of vast areas of mangroves in several countries, overfishing of juvenile shrimp from the wild to supply shrimp farms, and significant human rights abuses". In 2016, ''L. vannamei'' accounted for 53% of the total production of farmed crustaceans globally.

See also

*''Macrobrachium rosenbergii'', the giant freshwater prawn
*''Pandalus borealis'', Canadian northern prawns

References

External links

Thailand's White Shrimp Revolution

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3002564

Penaeidae
Edible crustaceans
Commercial crustaceans
Crustaceans of the eastern Pacific Ocean
Crustaceans described in 1931