Shrimps and Prawns: Introduction

Shrimps and Prawns

The popular names shrimps and prawns have been used variously to denote crustaceans of the families Penaeidae and Palaemonidae. Even though there is still some confusion in the use of these names, in most recent aquaculture literature the name prawn appears to be used for fresh-water forms of Palaemonids and shrimp for the others, particularly the marine species.

Shrimps form a group of subsidiary species in most types of fish culture in coastal impound-ments and ponds in Asia; and in countries like India, rice fields have been used for a form of extensive culture of shrimps  for centuries. However, intensive and semi-intensive culture of these crustaceans are of recent origin. Like the marine finfish referred to in earlier sections, interest in their culture, particularly of shrimps, was triggered by the recent increased market demand and the inad-equacy of the capture fishery landings to meet the demand. As the expanding markets were in economically advanced countries like Japan and the USA, the prospects of an export market and opportunities for earning foreign exchange attracted the support of the governments of developing countries and led to investment by private industry. In fact, shrimps and prawns became high-value commodities in many developing countries, mainly because of their export market. There is as much interest in private investment in shrimp farming in tropical countries today as there is for salmon farming in countries in the colder climates, for the very reason of prospects associated with exports.