Penaeus monodon

Penaeus monodon
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Crustacea
Class:	Malacostraca
Order:	Decapoda
Suborder:	Dendrobranchiata
Family:	Penaeidae
Genus:	Penaeus
Species:	P. monodon
Binomial name
Penaeus monodon Fabricius, 1798
Synonyms [1]
Penaeus carinatus Dana, 1852 Penaeus tahitensis Heller, 1862 Penaeus coeruleus Stebbing, 1905 Penaeus bubulus Kubo, 1949

Penaeus monodon, the giant tiger prawn (and also known by other common names), is a marine crustacean that is widely reared for food.

Distribution

The natural distribution is Indo-West-Pacific, ranging from the eastern coast of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, as far as South-east Asia, the Sea of Japan and northern Australia.^[2]

Description

Females can reach approximately 33 centimetres (13 in) long, but are typically 25–30 cm (10–12 in) long and weight 200–320 grams (7–11 oz); males are slightly smaller at 20–25 cm (8–10 in) long and weighing 100–170 g (3.5–6.0 oz).^[3]

Aquaculture

Penaeus monodon is the most widely cultured prawn species in the world, although it is gradually losing ground to the whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei.^[3] In 2009, 770,000 tonnes was produced, with a total value of US$3,650,000,000.^[3]

Sustainable consumption

In 2010, Greenpeace added Penaeus monodon to its seafood red list – "a list of fish that are commonly sold in supermarkets around the world, and which have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries".^[4] The reasons given by Greenpeace were "destruction of vast areas of mangroves in several countries, over-fishing of juvenile shrimp from the wild to supply farms, and significant human rights abuses".^[4]

References

Crustaceans portal

1. ^ "Species Fact Sheets: Penaeus monodon (Fabricius, 1798)". FAO Species Identification and Data Programme (SIDP). FAO. http://www.fao.org/figis/servlet/FiRefServlet?ds=species&fid=3405. Retrieved January 10, 2010. 
2. ^ L. B. Holthuis (1980). "Penaeus (Penaeus) monodon". Shrimps and Prawns of the World. An Annotated Catalogue of Species of Interest to Fisheries. FAO Species Catalogue. 1. Food and Agriculture Organization. p. 50. ISBN 92-5-100896-5. http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/ac477e/ac477e00.htm. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Penaeus monodon (Fabricius, 1798)". Cultured Aquatic Species Information Programme. Food and Agriculture Organization. http://www.fao.org/fishery/culturedspecies/Penaeus_monodon/en. Retrieved June 6, 2011. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "Greenpeace International Seafood Red list". Greenpeace. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/seafood/red-list-of-species. Retrieved February 16, 2010.