OPPORTUNITIES AND PROSPECTS OF COMMERCIAL FISHING OF GRASS SHRIMP OFF THE COAST OF THE KERCH PENINSULA
The article discusses the grass shrimp, which is popular not only as food, but also as bait with sport fishing, as well as as feed for livestock. In this connection, there is a need to assess the stocks of grass shrimp in the Azov-Black Sea basin and further study it as a possible fishing object. The relevance of this work lies in the fact that every year there is an increase in demand for seafood, as a result of which an increasing number of species find consumers in national and regional markets. An important role is also played by the fact that the grass shrimp can be used as a purifier of reservoirs from the remains of fish, crustaceans and aquatic plants. As a result of this work, the existing literature data on the biology, morphology and fishing of grass shrimp were studied, well-known literary sources were described and a brief description of them was given; the role of shrimp in the ecosystem of reservoirs, which are cleaners, collecting decomposing remains of crustaceans and fish from the bottom of reservoirs, is identified; the systematic position of grass shrimp (Palaemon adspersus Rathke, 1837) is determined; a brief description of the main commercial species of the genus Palaemon, namely grass shrimp (Palaemon adspersus Rathke, 1837), stone shrimp (Palaemon elegans Rathke, 1837), saw-toothed shrimp (Palaemon serratus, Pennant, 1777); a description of the existing methods of extraction of grass shrimp is given and the limitations associated with this are studied; the structure of the population of the species by size, mass and sexual composition is studied.