INACTIVE Panama shrimp - bottom trawl

The Panama Republic is a relatively small country in surface (75,000 Km²), but has a substantial biological potential as seafood producing country thanks to its geographic location. Panama coasts add up to 2,988 kilometers, 1,700 in the Pacific and 1,288 in the Caribbean. The continental shelf has an extension of 250,900 Km² and the Exclusive Economic Zone reaches 319,188 Km²

The fishing activity in Panama occurs mostly in the Pacific Ocean with 95%, where also 80% of the populations inhabits. The Gulf of Panama upwelling during the dry season is the basis for the relevant fishing activities in the Panamanian waters.

The industrial fishing operates in the Pacific Ocean and focus on shrimp, small pelagics for reduction, tuna, dolphin fish and finfish species, being the export markets the main objective. The industrial shrimp fishery is one of the main economic activities for Panama. This activity started in the 1950 with 50 vessels growing up to 307 in the 1980’s. For 2004 Panama had registered 249 industrial vessels with shrimp fishing license which diminished to 170 in 2005. Currently, due the low yields, the number of shrimp vessels is below 150.

The Panama shrimp fishery is a multispecific fishery being the Western white shrimp the most important in volume and value, followed by the Crystal and Fidel shrimps. The fishery has been for years the most important in terms of income, revenue and jobs generated. However, after years of excessive fishing effort and the noncompliance with the management measures have placed the shrimp populations in critical status resulting in decreasing landings which, combined with the weaknesses of the international market and the increasing producing costs, difficult the design and implementation of harvest strategies and harvest control rules aimed at recovering the stocks to sustainable levels, mitigate the fishery environmental impacts and to satisfy the increasing  demands for social and environmental responsibility in the markets for the Panamanian production.