NAFO Divisions 3LNO Based on Multi-Species Surveys from 1995-2002. by

• Main Authors: E. B. Colbourne, D. C. Orr
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2002
• Subjects: northern shrimp
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.622.8402; http://archive.nafo.int/open/sc/2002/scr02-153.pdf

The spatial distributions and abundance of northern shrimp are presented in relation to their thermal habitat for NAFO Divisions 3LNO during spring surveys from 1998-2002 and for fall surveys from 1995-2001. The highest numbers of shrimp were caught in the 2o-4oC-temperature range during the spring surveys with lower numbers in the 1o-2oC and 4o-5oC temperature ranges. During the fall surveys most shrimp were caught in the 1o-3oC temperature range. Cumulative frequency distribution of the number of shrimp caught and temperature indicates that only about 5 % of the catches are associated with temperatures <1oC in the spring and about 30 % are associated with temperatures <1oC in the fall. About 80-90 % of the shrimp were caught in the 2o-4oC temperature range during the spring, while only about 50 % of the catch appeared in this temperature range during the fall. In terms of available thermal habitat, about 30 % of the surveyed region was covered with water in the 2o-4oC-temperature range during the spring, while about 40 % was covered by water in this temperature range in the fall. An apparent shift in the shrimp distribution towards colder temperatures, further upon the Grand Bank and towards the inshore regions occurred during the fall and as a result, a greater proportion (30%) of the catch shifted into the 0o-1oC-temperature range. Very low numbers of shrimp were found in temperatures <0oC and>4oC during both spring and fall. Shrimp catches were mostly zero in all surveys in the swallow waters (<100 m) of the southeast