Reducing Bycatch in Shrimp Trawls Through Education

NOAA's Gear Monitoring Team has made significant progress improving and maintaining turtle excluder device compliance in the Gulf of America shrimp fishery. TEDs allow shrimp to pass through the bars to the end of the net. This allows fishers to maintain catch levels, while larger marine animals like sea turtles get "excluded" from the net.

Our gear experts cover the entire Gulf-from Key West, Florida to Brownsville, Texas. Through their efforts conducting outreach, education, and enforcement training within fishing communities, TED compliance rates in the Gulf shrimp fishery now exceed 90 percent.

Refresher for Law Enforcement

The team provides training to state and federal enforcement agencies to improve understanding of TED requirements and promote consistency in enforcement. This year we provided refresher training to:

• Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers and the U.S. Coast Guard near Marco Island, Florida
• Texas Parks and Wildlife and U.S. Coast Guard in South Texas
• Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries officers

NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement coordinated and participated in these training sessions with our team and state law enforcement partners. This allowed officers to gain proficiency in TED requirements and gain on the water experience measuring the devices.

"We conducted a classroom portion of the training to review regulations and provide hands-on practice," said Jason Letort, gear specialist and Gear Monitoring Team lead. "This was followed by a day of offshore patrols several miles west of Marco Island and Naples, Florida, where we boarded seven vessels and checked TED compliance on all of them. This allowed the officers to gain real experience checking TEDs on the back deck of a shrimp boat, which they can't get in a classroom."

Letort continued, "Even though this was a training exercise, law enforcement officers with us could take enforcement action, if necessary. Although we encountered a few minor violations, we repaired them all onsite so the fishermen could continue fishing and ensure sea turtles could escape properly."

Courtesy Dockside and At-Sea Inspections

We continue to build on outreach efforts by conducting courtesy dockside and at-sea inspections of required TEDs in the fishery. We engage with the fishing community through outreach and education hosting events at locations such as net shops and TED manufacturing facilities.

Over the past few months, the team worked in southwest Florida, eastern and western Louisiana, and South Texas. During these visits, they provided TED education to numerous fishermen to ensure TEDs are in compliance before being used during the shrimping season.

The turtle excluder device was originally designed as a mitigation measure to help sea turtles escape shrimp nets. It also allows many other large marine animals, like sharks and rays, to escape. This also eliminates handling and disentangling time on board the vessel-leading to greater efficiency for the fishermen on board. By preventing shrimp from getting damaged, it gives fishermen a better market price for their efforts.

This project was funded through the Deepwater Horizon Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group . These activities build on an existing Regionwide Trustee Implementation Group-funded Sea Turtle Early Restoration Project , and an existing Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group project . The project will continue these successful efforts to reduce sea turtle bycatch in Gulf of America commercial fisheries.