Morotoge shrimp Pandalopsis japonica is caught by pot and others in the eastern coastal waters of Korea. Comparative fishing experiments were carried out in the eastern coast of Korea, using the dome–shaped pots with different five mesh sizes (17.1, 24.8, 35.3, 39.8, and 48.3 mm) in order to estimate the mesh selectivity of the pot for the morotoge shrimp, Pandalopsis japonica. The SELECT (Share Each Length’s Catch Total) analysis method was applied to the catch data. The master selection curve of the pot for the shrimp was estimated to be s(R) = exp(15.770R–10.573)/[1+exp(15.770R–10.753)], where R is the ratio of carapace length to mesh size. From the selection curves, the carapace lengths of 50% retention were 11.6, 17.0, 23.9, and 34.1 mm for 17, 25, 35, and 50 mm mesh–size pot, respectively. It means that the pots of larger mesh size allow more shrimp of small size to escape.

For the optimal design of a shrimp pot to control the catch size and to reduce catch the small size shrimp, tank experiments were carried out to study the pot stability under water. Tank experiments were carried out to measure the drag with 4 kinds of model pots that have 50% selection on the individual of 25mm carapace length. The drag of each pot was measured every 10 times with changing the current speeds from 0.1m/s to 0.7m/s in 0.1m/s intervals and the pot attack angle from 0˚ to 90˚ in 15˚ interval in a flume tank. The relation between the current speed and drag was presented. The stability of pot was estimated using the drag data and the friction data of Kim et al. (2008b). The results showed that, the drag was shown lower as small as the projected area of pot depending on the current speeds and angles. The model pots were showed to slide on the seabed in case of rock at the current speeds 0.35-0.38m/s and the possibility of turn over at the current speeds 0.77-0.89m/s. In conclusion, the stability of a shrimp pot showed more stable as the pot of the lower the height and the smaller projected area on current.

In order to design the optimal escape vent for the coon strip shrimp pot, the tank experiments were conducted with the model pot of five different slit height and slit width, respectively. The optimal height and width of escape vent were determined to 20mm and 40mm by tank experiments, respectively. These were determined by the 50% selection carapace length which was denoted to 25mm in selectivity curve. The escape experiments were conducted to determine a number of escape vent with the original shrimp pot to be set the designed escape vent from 2 vents to 10 vents increasing at intervals of 2 vents in tank. The optimal number of escape vents denoted 8 vents. Therefore, to apply the escape vent in commercial shrimp pot will be efficient to reduce small size shrimps to catch.