Sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico have something to celebrate.
On August 21, new regulations issued by the National Marine
Fisheries Service (NMFS) went into effect requiring shrimpers
in the gulf to use enlarged turtle excluder devices (TEDs) that
allow larger sea turtles, such as the endangered leatherback
and loggerhead turtles, to escape shrimpers' nets.
NMFS expects the new TEDs to reduce leatherback annual
mortality in shrimp nets by 97% and loggerhead mortality by
94%. The rule, which applies to U.S. shrimpers in the South
Atlantic states and the Gulf of Mexico, was adopted on February
20, 2003. Southern Atlantic shrimpers adopted the new
regulations in mid-April.
Shrimp trawling has caused serious harm to all sea turtle
species throughout the world. Trawling involves the dragging
huge nets through the ocean for many miles. These nets capture
target catch—shrimp—as well as many other sea creatures,
labeled incidental catch (or bycatch), such as sea turtles,
seals, sharks and dolphins.
By the time the nets are pulled ashore, most of the captured
animals—including sea turtles—have been drowned or are near
death. NMFS scientists estimate that the United States shrimp
industry is currently responsible for killing at least 2,300
leatherback turtles and 62,000 loggerhead turtles each year.
However, other fishing operations also result in significant
sea turtle mortality. Longlining, for instance, is responsible
for killing an estimated 40,000 sea turtles each year.
Some shrimpers have complained that the required use of TEDs
costs their industry millions of dollars annually in lost
shrimp and installation fees. Now they say that the larger TED
openings will be expensive to install and will result in even
greater loss of shrimp. But according to NMFS data, standard
TEDs can be modified for about $40. The cost of a new TED is
only about $220, and some shrimpers may qualify for federal
financial assistance to implement the new regulations.
NMFS studies suggest that, when properly installed, TEDs
with larger openings will result in an estimated zero to 2%
loss of shrimp catch. TEDs have been required on all U.S.
domestic shrimp boats since 1990, and larger TED devices have
been successfully used for years by many shrimpers— those in
Georgia and Cape Canaveral, Florida, for instance—with no
reports of shrimp loss or other problems. In fact,
environmentalists assert that TEDs may make shrimping boats
more efficient by eliminating the incidence of heavy bycatch,
which can significantly outweigh target catch in nets and
require greater use of fuel.
Furthermore, a substantial number of shrimpers support the
use of TEDs, asserting that they increase the quality (and thus
the market value) of the shrimp they catch by allowing large
incidental catch such as leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles
to escape shrimping nets, where they would crush and damage
shrimp or other smaller target catch.
