A 



LESSON 



IN 



TEDs 



By Kathy Hart 



the docks in New Hanover and Brunswick coun- 

 ties, Jim Balien is teaching fishermen about an un- 

 popular subject— TEDs. 



For Bahen, a Sea Grant Marine Advisory Service 

 fisheries agent, the classroom is the docks and his 

 visual aid is an odd mixture of aluminum tubing and 

 web. 



Like other Sea Grant agents in the Southeast, Bahen 

 is educating fishermen about the excluders. 



He stops by fish houses on the days or afternoons 

 when the "boys" are at the docks, pulls the collapsible 

 TED from the back of his red truck and heads cau- 

 tiously for the fish house door. 



Sometimes he's greeted warmly, and fishermen stop to 

 listen. 



Other times, he's told to take his contraption and 

 leave. 



But gradually Bahen has coaxed one shrimper and 

 then another to try the TEDs. 



His main selling point is not the device's ability to rid 

 nets of turtles. North Carolina shrimpers claim they 

 don't catch many turtles and the ones they do catch, 

 they revive. 



Instead, Bahen gets fishermen to try TEDs based on 

 the small fish, crabs and jellyballs they eliminate. 



Shrimper William Varnum of Holden Beach has been 

 pulling TEDs in his nets for three years. 



"There'll be a bunch of us out shrimping and we'll 

 come across an area where we're catching a lot of 

 fish," Varnum says. "The other boats will have to leave 

 and go to another area where the fish are not so bad. I 

 keep right on going. 



' 'I can put a few bugs (shrimp) in the hole like that,' ' 

 he says. 



Varnum says most fishermen do not want to pull the 

 TEDs because they're worried about losing shrimp and 

 about injury to crewmen. 



But Varnum says he catches the same amount of 

 shrimp or more when the TEDs are in his nets. 



He's convinced the TEDs save him time and money. 



During July and early August, the fish bycatch was so 

 heavy off Brunswick County beaches that fishermen 

 split their nets to eliminate bycatch. 



"Fishermen complain that they're going to lose 

 shrimp with TEDs,' ' Varnum says. ' 'But you can't tell 

 me they don't lose shrimp when they split their bags, 

 too." 



And Varnum says the devices are no more dangerous 

 than other equipment on the boat's deck. 



"The only time the TED is anywhere near the men is 

 when you whip the nets in," Varnum says. "You have 

 to watch when you drop it to see how the boat is roll- 

 ing. But if your men have common sense, there should 

 be no problem." 



