Population dynamics of the Metapenaeus monoceros (Fabricius, 1798) in North-eastern Mediterranean Sea

Monthly sampling of speckled shrimp was conducted by bottom trawl in the iskenderun bay between november 2009 and october 2010. there was a linear relationship between carapace length and total length in males and females (tl = -0.112 + 0.2294*cl; r2 = 0.8298, n = 327) for males, (tl = -0.3918 + 0.2731 * cl; r2 = 0.8919, n = 457) for females, and (tl = -0.378 + 0.2684 * cl; r2=0.8492, n=784) for total individuals. total length-weight relationships were w=0.0135*tl2.7817 for males, w= 0.0115*tl2.8535 for females, and w=0.0109*tl2.8108 for total individuals. the von bertalanffy growth constants in length was tl?= 162.75mm, k = 1.39 year–1, t0 = -0.0604 year for males; tl?= 178.40mm, k = 1.51 year-1, t0 = -0.780 year for females; and tl?= 174.14mm, k = 1.47 year-1, t0 = -0.0721 year for total individuals. in this study, the total (z), natural (m) and fishing (f) mortality coefficient and exploitation rates (e) were determined as 5.39 year-1, 2.39 year-1, 3.00 year-1 and e=0.56 year-1, respectively for all of the obtained individuals.