Restocking of subadult grass prawn, Penaeus monodon, in the coastal waters of Southwest Taiwan. In：R. Hirano and I. Hanyu (eds.)

Abstract

Due to the rapid development of grass prawn, Penaeus monodon culture industry in Taiwan, spawners of this species were almost depleted from the waters surrounding Taiwan. The release of pond-reared subadults is expected to increase the stock of spawners in the region. An effective tag for P. monodon, modified from a streamer tag, was developed and used for field experiments. It was observed that the recapture rate of P. monodon from seawater ponds was much higher than that from brackishwater ponds. This reveals that the condition of the released prawns influences the recapture rate. It was also observed that the highest growth was 9.37 g/week for female and 3.52 g/week for male released subadults. It seems clear that the released prawns grew fast in coastal waters. It is assumed that the restocking of subadults to augment P. monodon broodstock in nature has a promising prospect.