''Sicyonia brevirostris'', the brown rock shrimp, is a species of

prawn Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton and ten legs (which is a member of the order decapoda), some of which can be eaten. The term "prawn"Mortenson, Philip B (2010''This is not a weasel: a close look at nature ...

. It is found along the coasts of the western

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

and

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

from

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

Yucatán Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the political divisions of Mexico, federal entities of Mexico. I ...

, including

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

and the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

. It is used in cooking and has a taste and texture similar to

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

. They get their name from their hard outer shell which is "hard as a rock".

Appearance

The rock shrimp is a deepwater cousin of the pink, brown and white Gulf shrimp species (

Penaeus ''Penaeus'' is a genus of prawns, including the giant tiger prawn (''P. monodon''), the most important species of farmed crustacean worldwide. The genus has been reorganised following a proposition of Pérez Farfante and Kensley based on morph ...

spp.). It appears off-white to pinkish in color with the back surface darker and blotched or barred with lighter shades. Their legs are red to reddish-purple and barred with white. The abdomen has deep transverse grooves and numerous nodules. Short hairs cover their bodies and appendages. Their eyes are large and deeply pigmented.

Biology

Brown rock shrimp's growth and development depends on factors such as water temperature and

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...

. They can grow up to 6 inches in length, but most brown rock shrimp found in shallow waters are less than 2 inches long. They are highly productive and have a short life span, between 20 and 22 months. Females are able to reproduce when they reach at least 1/2 to 1 inch in length. Males mature when they reach about 1/2 inch long. Brown rock shrimp spawn year-round in offshore waters, with peaks between November and January. Individual females can spawn three or more times in one season. Males and females mate, and the eggs are fertilized when the female simultaneously releases egg and sperm. Eggs hatch within 24 hours. Juvenile and adult brown rock shrimp feed on the ocean floor, mainly eating small bivalve mollusks and

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s. Sheepshead,

minnow Minnow is the common name for a number of species of small freshwater fish, belonging to several genera of the families Cyprinidae and Leuciscidae. They are also known in Ireland as pinkeens. Smaller fish in the subfamily Leusciscidae are co ...

s, water boatmen, and insect larvae eat post-larval brown rock shrimp. A wide variety of species prey on juvenile and adult brown rock shrimp.

Habitat

Brown rock shrimp are found from

, south through the

to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. They live and spawn in warm deep waters, 120 to 240 feet below the surface.

Management

NOAA
Fisheries and th
South Atlantic Fishery Management Council
manage the brown rock shrimp fishery. Managed under th
Shrimp Fishery Management Plan
* Permit are required to harvest shrimp in federal waters. * Trip reports must be submitted for each fishing trip. * Observers must be carried aboard selected vessels to collect data on catch,

bycatch Bycatch (or by-catch), in the fishing industry, is a fish or other marine species that is caught unintentionally while fishing for specific species or sizes of wildlife. Bycatch is either the wrong species, the wrong sex, or is undersized or juve ...

, fishing effort, and fishing gear. * Managers set catch levels based on historic harvest amounts and fishing rates, rather than abundance, because brown rock shrimp are short-lived and heavily influenced by environmental factors. * Vessels are prohibited from

trawling Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different speci ...

in certain areas off Florida to protect deep water coral habitat. To ensure compliance, brown rock shrimp vessels must carr
vessel monitoring systems.
Brown rock shrimp are occasionally caught in the Gulf of Mexico but not in quantities large enough to warrant specific management measures.

Status

According to the 201
stock assessment
brown rock shrimp is not subject to

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in th ...

. There is currently not enough information to determine the population size, so it is unknown. Brown rock shrimp are highly productive. Their population size varies naturally from year to year based on environmental conditions.

Notes

Other references

Rock shrimp
''NOAA FishWatch''. Retrieved 4 November 2012. Dendrobranchiata Crustaceans of the Atlantic Ocean Crustaceans described in 1871 {{Decapoda-stub