Fishermen allowed to stop using exclusion devices temporarily
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
By RUSS HENDERSON
Staff Reporter
Federal regulators announced Monday that Gulf fishermen can temporarily stop using devices designed to let endangered turtles slip out of shrimpers' nets, but only in certain waters off the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
National Marine Fisheries Service regulators said debris from Hurricane Katrina -- everything from dead animals to beach house wreckage -- is clogging the devices, meaning that shrimpers are losing catch and turtles aren't being saved anyway.
Fishermen will instead be asked to limit their net-towing time to 55 minutes so that trapped turtles can be discovered and released before they drown.
Alabama shrimpers were happy at the news.
Storm debris generally backs up inside turtle excluder devices, or TEDs, clogging the net and preventing shrimp from piling up in the tail bag, where the shrimp are ultimately caught, said Ernie Anderson, co-owner of a Bayou La Batre shrimp unloading dock and president of the Organized Seafood Association of Alabama.
Without TEDs "both debris and shrimp will be caught in your tail bag. You'll haul up debris either way, but without the TED, you'll get some shrimp, too," Anderson said.
The National Marine Fisheries Service placed the order in effect Monday, valid until 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 22. The order affects the area of state and federal waters from the eastern border of Alabama to the boundary of Cameron Parish, La., and extending offshore 50 nautical miles.
Anderson predicted that only boats working close to shore, in shallower and more dangerous areas, will go without the TEDs. The 55-minute tow requirement will take a lot of time and energy, he said.
As of July, Alabama had 924 licensed shrimp boats, 725 of them in Mobile County, most of those porting in Bayou La Batre. During Hurricane Katrina's landfall on Aug. 29, 39 boats were tossed on the beach and dozens more were damaged.
Anderson estimated that 60 percent of the Gulf boats that call the Bayou home were trawling near Texas this week, toward the end of what is usually the very active July-October season.
There are seven species of sea turtles, six of which are found in United States water, and all six of which are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
The sea turtle that nests most often on the Alabama Gulf coast is the Kemp's Ridley, one of the smaller sea turtles, and perhaps the most endangered. They tend to get caught in shrimping nets, though that has declined with the use of turtle excluder devices on shrimp trawls, according to biologists.
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