A Better Excluder 



continued 



Parrish had a new TED— the Parrish soft TED. 



"There were other soft TEDs out there," Par- 

 rish says. "But we were the first to make one that 

 pushed the turtle out the bottom of the net." 



The Parrish TED is made of 8-inch stretch 

 webbing. It is sewn in the net between the 

 main body and the tailbag. The webbing 

 deflects turtles downward through a 40-inch 

 hole in the bottom of the net. The opening is 

 held rigid by a rectangular bar and closed with 

 an elastic cord. 



Pressure from a large object such as a turtle 

 will cause the opening to gap and allow the 

 turtle to escape. 



But some folks had their doubts. 



"People told us it couldn't be done," Bahen 

 says. "They questioned whether a soft TED 

 would really exclude turtles. And others said 

 our version would let out too many shrimp." 



A test in North Carolina waters proved that 

 nets equipped with the Parrish TED still caught 

 plenty of shrimp. And a rigorous NMFS test in 

 turtle-infested waters near Cape Canaveral 

 proved the device excluded the large reptiles. 



After the Canaveral test in October 1987, the 

 Parrish TED seemed destined for federal 

 certification. 



But fishermen weren't always appreciative of 

 Parrish's efforts. To some, it looked like Parrish 

 was siding with the enemy. 



"Fishermen think that we (netmakers) like 

 TEDs because we can make more money off 

 them," Parrish says. "I don't like TEDs any more 

 or less than they do. I just wanted to design 

 something that was easier and cheaper for the 

 fishermen to use." 



After the Florida test runs, Parrish waited for 

 federal approval of his design and hoped it 

 would receive a favorable nod before the May 

 1, 1988, deadline for mandatory TED use in 

 North Carolina. But a maze of bureaucratic 

 paperwork slowed the certification process. 



Meanwhile, Louisiana fishermen, who were re- 

 quired to TED-up earlier than their South- 

 eastern counterparts, took the issue to court in 

 early 1988. 



As the case was arbitrated, the mandatory 

 use of TEDs was put on hold and so was the 

 certification of the Parrish TED. 



Finally, one year after it passed federal tests, 

 the Parrish TED was approved. Its design 

 specification and the regulations governing its 

 use appeared in the Federal Register in 

 October. 



And after an appeals court ruled in favor of 

 the federal government's right to require TEDs, 

 the excluders are again slated for use this year. 



But Bahen has his doubts. Rumblings 

 among fishermen's groups in Louisiana and 

 Texas have it that another suit will be filed. 



As fishermen stall, Parrish and Bahen work 

 to modify their design. Using a grant from 

 NMFS, the pair will team up again in March to 

 test various TED designs in a flume tank at the 

 U.S. Navy Testing Facility in Bethesda, Md. 



In preparation, Parrish has made a trawl net 

 one-fourth the size of a usual net. In it, he will 

 inset small TED replicas to test. A mock turtle 

 also will be used to see how the TEDs expel 

 the reptiles. 



"In the flume tank, we'll see how the trawl 

 and TED actually react under water," Parrish 

 says. "We'll be looking at how different things 

 affect the TEDs." 



The data Parrish and Bahen gather will be 

 fed into a computer model for final analysis 

 and comparison. A scientist from the Massa- 

 chusetts Institute of Technology will assist the 

 duo with the computer analysis. 



While Parrish looks toward future designs, he 

 still must think about today's TED demands. 

 Many Tar Heel shrimpers haven't bought a 

 single excluder, hoping that litigation may pre- 

 vent them from ever having to own one. But 

 Bahen believes sooner or later both shrimpers 

 and Parrish will have to TED-up. 



