Turtle-proofing 

 Fishing Gear 



One warm afternoon, a foul stench 

 drifts in the wind along an Onslow 

 County beach. A couple of hundred 

 yards up the beach lies a 200-pound, 

 decaying loggerhead turtle, bloated 

 and matted with flies. 



Last summer 102 sea turtles, mainly 

 loggerheads, were found dead along 

 North Carolina beaches. The numbers 

 were even higher for other south- 

 eastern states where turtles are more 

 numerous — 693 in South Carolina, 656 

 in Georgia and 217 along the east coast 

 of Florida. 



No one is sure why most of these 

 turtles died. But the deaths made a 

 significant cut in already dwindling 

 populations. Some speculate many of 

 the turtles died after drowning in 

 fishermen's trawl nets and gill nets. 



Richard Seely, a commercial fisher- 

 man from Marshallberg, says he 

 averages catching three or four turtles 

 in his nets during the shrimping season 

 every year. "That may not sound like 

 a lot," he says. "But when I can count 

 as many as 85 boats trawling in the 

 same area and you start multiplying 

 those numbers, well, that can be a lot 

 of turtles." 



Seely says most of the turtles he 

 pulls up in his nets can be revived and 

 returned to the water. But occasion- 

 ally, he says, he finds one that is dead. 



"They just get caught in my net as 

 I'm towing," he says regretfully. "I 

 can't tell when they get in there. It's 

 not my fault and it's not the turtle's 

 fault." 



Chuck Oravetz of the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) 

 agrees that fishermen should not be 

 blamed for all the sea turtle deaths. 

 "It's a gross error to think that all 

 stranded turtles are a result of fishing 

 activities," he says. 



To help fishermen bar the reptiles 

 from their nets, NMFS has been 

 developing a sea turtle excluder device 

 to be used in their trawls. After careful 

 testing, NMFS came up with a design 

 that is low-cost ($200 or less) and easy 

 to attach to existing trawl nets. 

 Oravetz says the excluder device 

 eliminates 90 percent of the turtles 

 usually caught and also eliminates 

 sponges, logs and "cannonball" or 

 "cabbage head" jellyfish. 



Photo by Kathy Hart 



Chuck Oravetz demonstrates miniature excluder device 



Shaped like a wide funnel, the ex- 

 cluder has diagonal back and side bars 

 that are three to six inches apart. The 

 device is sewn inside the trawl at the 

 intersection of the trawl body and the 

 tail bag. As a turtle or any other large 

 object enters the bag, it strikes the 

 diagonal bars and is forced downward 

 toward a trap door that is set to release 

 heavy objects. The trap door closes af- 

 ter the turtle is released. Shrimp and 

 other small objects will pass through 

 the bars and into the tail bag. 



The excluder will have several ad- 

 vantages that should sell the fishermen 

 on its use, Oravetz says. "It will save 

 turtles, eliminate heavy byproducts, 

 reduce sorting time, cut down on 

 crushed shrimp and allow longer tow- 

 ing times," he says. 



Oravetz says some fishermen volun- 

 tarily used the excluder devices during 

 last year's shrimping season and more 

 are expected to give it a try this sum- 

 mer. He and other NMFS officials are 

 traveling the southeastern coast this 

 spring to demonstrate the device 



through video tapes and models. 

 (They demonstrated the excluder in 

 North Carolina for Sea Grant agents in 

 early April. You can contact your 

 nearest agent for further information 

 about the device.) 



In another effort to save sea turtles 

 last year, the NMFS enacted 240-day 

 emergency regulations for reviving 

 comatose sea turtles that are in shock 

 and may appear dead. Under the 

 emergency regulations, fishermen are 

 asked to place a comatose sea turtle on 

 its breastplate and elevate its hind- 

 quarters. Oravetz says this is a better 

 method of resuscitation than the older 

 method of placing the turtle on its 

 back and pumping its breastplate. 



All turtles, dead or alive, must be 

 returned to the water. Fishermen who 

 take turtles can be fined $20,000 by 

 NMFS. 



To help sea turtles in North 

 Carolina, the state Marine Fisheries 

 Commission designated a sea turtle 



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