Shrimp is one of the most valuable fishery resources of Venezuela, with landings about 12 400 t (2007) and worth more than US $35 million. Fishing is carried out along the coast; the industrial trawl fleet used to operate at depths between 10 and 120 m, while fishing with artisanal gears is done close to shore, in coastal lagoons, gulfs and in Lake Maracaibo at depths from 1 to 40 m. The latter represent 84% of landings, mainly from Lake Maracaibo. While only the shrimp is sold by the artisanal fleet, the industrial fleet also sells some fish species, crabs and mollusks.
From 2001 to 2006, 71 pop-up satellite archival tags (PSATs) were deployed on five species of pelagic shark (blue shark [Prionace glauca]; shortfin mako [Isurus oxyrinchus]; silky shark [Carcharhinus falciformis]; oceanic whitetip shark [C. longimanus]; and bigeye thresher [Alopias superciliosus]) in the central Pacific Ocean to determine species-specific movement patterns and survival rates after release from longline fishing gear.