TheBack Pa 



"The Back Page" is an update on Sea 

 Grant activities— on research, marine 

 education and advisory services. It's also 

 a good place to find out about meetings, 

 workshops and new publications. For 

 more information on any of the projects 

 described, contact the Sea Grant offices in 

 Raleigh (919/737-2454). For copies of pub- 

 lications, write UNC Sea Grant, Box 8605, 

 NCSU, Raleigh, N.C. 27695-8605. 



On again, off again, on 

 again. That best describes 

 the regulations governing 

 turtle excluder devices, or 

 TEDs, during the summer 

 of '89. 



The devices designed to expel sea 

 turtles from shrimp nets stirred a hotbed of 

 controversy. 



And as a result, it has been a summer 

 that has found Secretary of Commerce 

 Robert Mossbacher in court and Gulf 

 shrimpers blocking access to some ports 

 in protest. 



Environmentalists are pushing the 

 federal government to enforce regulations 

 that require shrimpers to install TEDs in 

 their nets. They believe that without the 

 TEDs, hundreds of endangered sea turtles 

 will be caught in nets and drown. 



But shrimpers say the same holes cut to 

 expel turtles also allow their catch to 

 escape. They say the shrimp escape is so 

 great that it is putting them out of 

 business. 



To appease environmentalists and 

 uphold the Endangered Species Act, 

 Mossbacher reinstated the TED regula- 

 tions, but with a few changes to appease 

 fishermen, too. 



The new regulations state that shrimpers 

 must either use TEDs in their nets or par- 

 ticipate in synchronized shrimping. 



And what is synchronized shrimping? 



It's a schedule of times when all shrimp 

 boats without TEDs can and can't have 

 their nets in the water. Tow periods last 105 

 minutes; rest periods, 30 minutes. Any 

 boat towing for shrimp during the rest 

 periods will be stopped to see if they are 

 pulling TEDs. 



The U.S. Coast Guard and the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service enforcement of- 

 ficers are enforcing the regulation. 



These regulations remain in effect until 

 Sept. 7. Meanwhile, Mossbacher heads 

 back to federal court to justify the new 

 regulations. 



So, stay tuned for the next installment of 

 'As the TED Turns." 



From North Carolina to 

 Texas, fishermen say TEDs 

 are losers when it comes to 

 shrimp. 



They claim all of the dif- 

 ferent TED designs expel 

 turtles and lots of shrimp too. 



But Sea Grant agent Jim Bahen and 

 Varnamtown netmaker Steve Parrish have 

 been hard at work to correct this flaw. 



The duo began their work with miniature 

 TEDs in the Navy's flume tank— a test tank 

 for ship and submarine designs. After 

 hours of testing and yards of videotape, 

 Bahen and Parrish came back to North 

 Carolina with a better idea of how TEDs 

 worked underwater. 



That's when the changes began. Parrish 

 modified his own design, the Parrish soft 

 TED, and another design that used a 

 metal grid to deflect the turtle out of the 

 net. 



Then Parrish and Bahen headed to 

 Georgia for a real test aboard The Georgia 

 Bulldog, a research and testing vessel 

 operated by Georgia Sea Grant. 



The TEDs were installed one at a time in 

 a 65-foot, two-seam shrimp net, a 

 standard net used for brown shrimp in 

 North Carolina. As a control, no TED was 

 placed in the other net towed by the trawl. 



In nine tows alongside Georgia's shrimp 

 fleet, the TED nets either netted as many 

 or more shrimp than the control net 

 without the TEDs. 



"The modifications reduced shrimp loss 

 significantly," Bahen says. 



To prove how well the modified TEDs 

 worked, Bahen placed an underwater 

 video camera in the net. He now has 

 footage that shows how the TEDs work 

 underwater, how they reduce shrimp loss 

 and how they expel turtles. 



Bahen is assembling the footage into a 

 video that he will have available to show 

 fishermen early this fall. For more informa- 

 tion about the modified TEDs or the video, 

 call Bahen at 919/458-5498. Or stop by his 

 office at the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher. 



Sea Grant marine advisory agent Jim 

 Bahen has developed Recreational Guide 

 to Management of Fish in South Atlantic 

 Waters. The guide provides current 

 biological data and the latest state and 

 federal regulations for popular species of 

 fish found off the North Carolina coast. 



The one-page guide is a handy 

 reference for any recreational fisherman. 



For your free copy, write Sea Grant. Ask 

 for UNC-SG-89-06. And when ordering, 

 be sure to use the customer identification 

 number that apears on your Coastwatch. 



When students in the 

 Australian Outback go to 

 class, they don't take a bus 

 or catch the carpool. They 

 turn on the radio. Some 

 youngsters from 

 kindergarten to middle school live so far 

 out on sheep and cattle ranches that they 

 can't go to school easily. So teachers 

 broadcast lessons daily over the radio. 



Seeing "The School of the Air" was just 

 one fascinating adventure for 17 North 

 Carolina teachers taking part in the 

 Australia Institute July 6 to 26. 



The three-week workshop in Queens- 

 land gave teachers the chance to learn 

 how life Down Under compares to life 

 back home. They investigated educational 

 systems and ecosystems, explored the 

 Great Barrier Reef, conducted ex- 

 periments and discussed global en- 

 vironmental problems with Australian 

 scientists. 



One of the highlights was an afternoon 

 watching wallabies feeding and preening, 

 says Lundie Spence, Sea Grant's educa- 

 tion specialist and one of the program's 

 coordinators. Some of the native 

 marsupials even had joeys in their 

 pouches. 



The teachers spent time snorkeling over 

 different types of reefs from the fringing 



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