The role of estuaries in the development and perpetuation of commercial shrimp resources.

This report summarizes knowledge concerning functional relationships between the estuarine environment and commercial shrimp resources. Discussion is largely restricted to North American species; attention is focused upon situations evolving specifically as a result of the rapid urban and industrial development of our estuary-rich Gulf coast. The association of shrimp and the brackish-water environment from ontogenetic and ecological points of view is reviewed. The question of continued productivity and perpetuation of shrimp stocks in the face of man's steady incursion of estuaries is considered. Also considered are measures that might be taken to counteract real, or imagined, effects of society's development of coastal wetlands.