Occurrence of Penaeus aztecus, Ives, 1891 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Penaeidae) in the coastal water of Alexandria, Egypt

A sample of 347 specimens of the northern brown shrimp Penaeus aztecus, a western Atlantic species, was collected from July 2019 to June 2020 by local bottom trawlers off two fishing areas, Abu-Qir Bay and Ma’deya, east of Alexandria Coast, Egypt. The species identification was confirmed by morphological and genetic characters. Some aspects of the species’ morphometry and its monthly abundance were briefly discussed. The collected adults were observed from May to November with higher percentage of occurrence in August (29% of total shrimp catch). Sex ratio was 1: 1.2 (F: M). The total length of the adult specimen ranged from 91 mm to 210 mm. COI sequences gave a maximum identity of 99.56% with P. aztecus from Texas and USA, and 99.44% with species from the Eastern Mediterranean. The genetic distance among the studied species from Egypt, USA and the Eastern Mediterranean ranged from 0.2 to 0.7%. The results of this study suggest that P. aztecus may become a new resource for coastal Mediterranean shrimp fisheries.