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Age, growth, and mortality of the karamote shrimp, Melicertus kerathurus (Forskal, 1775), in the east Ionian Sea (western Greece).

Age, growth, and mortality of the karamote shrimp, Melicertus kerathurus (Forskal, 1775) [formerly: Penaeus k], were determined for the native population in Amvrakikos Gulf (Ionian Sea, western Greece). Sampling was carried out on a monthly basis between June 1999 and May 2001. Carapace length ranged between 22 and 62 mm. Based on the carapace length frequency distribution, the Gulf population is composed mainly of individuals belonging to the first age class (0 and 1), and only a few from the other two expected age classes. Length frequency distributions and weight-at-age data were used to estimate the parameters of the Von Bertalanffy growth equations. For females, these were: CL infinity = 69.704 mm, TL infinity = 309.14 mm, W-infinity = 123.01 g, K = 1.062 year(-1), t(0) = 0.238 years. For males: CL infinity = 62.658 mm, TL infinity = 274.18 mm, W-infinity = 115.979 g, K = 1.253 year(-1), t(0) = 0 years. Von Bertalanffy parameters for pooled data were: CL infinity = 59.695 mm, t(0) = 0 and K = 1.047 year(-1) and TL infinity = 246.79 mm, t(0) = 0.410 and K = 0.629 year(-1) and W-infinity = 92.88 g based on TL. The overall length-weight relationship was: log W = -1.767 + 2.037 log TL (r(2) = 0.842, N = 5505). Total mortality Z and natural mortality M rates for combined sexes were 2.26 year(-1) and 1.15 year(-1), respectively. The exploitation ratio E was estimated to be 49%.

age; growth; mortality; karamote shrimp

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