Growth and population characteristics of the Western King Prawn Penaeus latisulcatus (Kishinouye, 1896) from the southeastern Mediterranean off the Egyptian coast

Penaeus latisulcatus (Kishinouye, 1896) is considered one of the most economically important penaeid shrimp species in the Egyptian Red Sea. Recently, it appeared in the Egyptian Mediterranean catches. The present study is concerned with the estimation of growth, age and population characteristics of the non-indigenous P. latisulcatus collected between the months of July 2020 to June 2021 from the landing fishing center of Boughaz El-Maadiyah (Egyptian Mediterranean coast). A total of 2214 individuals were collected monthly. The results showed that the females to males ratio was 1:0.98. According to the Chi-square test, there was no statistically significant difference between the sexes (X² = 0.181, df = 1, P > 0.05). The distribution of the length frequency showed that the females varied from 5.0 cm to 19.2 cm (TL) with a mean length of 11.73 ± 2.78 cm, while the males ranged from 5.3 cm to 17.1 cm (TL) with a mean length of 10.97 ± 2.06 cm. Positive allometry was detected for the total length-total weight relationship. The parameters of von Bertalanffy were L∞ = 20.56 cm, K = 0.99 yr⁻¹ and t_o = −0.178 yr⁻¹ for females, L∞ = 18.68 cm, K = 1.05 yr⁻¹ and t_o = −0.172 yr⁻¹ for males, and L∞ = 20.74 cm, K = 0.90 yr⁻¹ and t_o = −0.196 yr⁻¹ for the combined sexes. The expected age of females and males were 2.6 and 2.2 years, respectively. According to the parameters obtained, the current exploitation rate of the population of P. latisulcatus was estimated at Ecur. = 0.59. The results indicated that the population of P. latisulcatus is being highly exploited in Boughaz El-Maadiyah landing center (Egyptian Mediterranean coast). Hence, it is important to manage the P. latisulcatus shrimp resources in the studied area. Furthermore, similar studies are recommended for P. latisulcatus along the Egyptian Mediterranean coast to evaluate variations between populations in different fishing areas. Moreover, further studies are needed about the new aspects of the reproductive activity of this species as well as its aquaculture to estimate its growth rate experimentally.