4 



bycatch poundage. "We were also try- 

 ing to see which kinds of fish were 

 staying in the nets," he says. "And the 

 size of the fish was important too. We 

 not only saw a reduction in biomass, 

 but the smaller fish were finding their 

 way out of the nets." 



That's good news, says netmaker 

 Parrish. "We want to be able to keep 

 the marketable fish and let the smaller 

 ones out," he says. "Sure, we could 

 make the holes (in the separator) big- 

 ger and let out most of the fish, but 

 that's not what we're trying to do." 



The challenge, Parrish says, is to 

 adapt the principles used in the FSDs 



to nets that must include TEDs. "The 

 smaller fishermen, the ones who tow 

 for shorter periods of time, will use 

 these FSD designs," he says. "Now, we 

 need to make it work for fishermen 

 who are doing longer tows and who 

 must use TEDs." 



Bahen says another week of testing 

 during the fall shrimping season should 

 give researchers a better handle on 

 the new FSD designs. 



Until then, the data collected from 

 the June field tests will be analyzed 

 more closely. 



"I don't know if FSDs will ever be- 

 come part of the commercial fishing in- 



Steve Parrish makes repairs to a 

 model FSD at the David Taylor 

 Research Center. 



dustry," Bahen says. "But when and if 

 it does, we'll have the information fisher- 

 men will need to effectively run these 

 nets. Right now, we're getting ahead of 

 the game." 



Bycatch Catching Lots of Attention 



BY C. R. EDGERTON 



Governmental agencies on the state 

 and national levels are planning bycatch 

 strategies. These efforts could make 

 the reduction of bycatch the most talked 

 about fisheries issue since turtles. 



The National Marine Fisheries Serv- 

 ice, the federal agency charged with 

 regulating the country's fishing waters, 

 is proposing an innovative plan for 

 dealing with bycatch. A steering com- 

 mittee, made up of representatives from 

 government, industry and academia, is 

 in the works. 



"NMFS officials say this committee 

 will attempt to look at the overall 

 bycatch picture, and not just innova- 

 tions in gear," says Sea Grant's Marine 

 Advisory Service Director Jim Murray. 



The steering committee will set up a 

 subcommittee that will monitor techni- 



cal innovations and ideas dealing with 

 bycatch, Murray says. 



"In addition to our own work with fin- 

 fish separator devices (FSDs), there's 

 work being done in Florida, some in 

 Georgia and other places," he says. 

 "Up to this point, there hasn't been a 

 good system to get all this together. 

 That's what the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service wants to do." 



The steering committee will also at- 

 tempt to organize a conference that will 

 feature bycatch-reducing gear from 

 around the world. "This will show that 

 bycatch is not just an American prob- 

 lem, that other countries have been 

 dealing with it for years." Murray says. 



On the state level, the N.C. Division 

 of Marine Fisheries is testing experi- 

 mental bycatch-reducing gear, including 

 a new net addition known as the 

 Florida Fish Excluder. This device uses 



a simple bar grid sewn into the bottom 

 of a standard shrimp trawl to allow an 

 escape path for finfish. 



"We've been able to see about 30 

 percent reduction in bycatch using the 

 Florida separator," says DMF fisheries 

 expert Katy West. "On the other hand, 

 we've not had much success with sky- 

 light designs." (Skylight designs incor- 

 porate larger-sized mesh or holes in 

 the top of the net.) 



One major holdback in DMF's efforts 

 to test bycatch-reducing gear is a lack 

 of funding. "Our project has been ap- 

 proved, but the funds haven't come in 

 yet. So we're doing some testing on 

 our own," West says. 



DMF's experiments have focused on 

 the inshore shrimp trawl fishery and 

 the offshore flynet fishery. They will 

 also test FSDs in trawls equipped with 

 Parrish, Morrison and Anthony Weed- 

 less TEDs. 



"The division's position is that we 

 really don't know how much of a prob- 

 lem bycatch really is," West says. "But 

 we know it definitely wouldn't hurt to try 

 to reduce it. We don't advocate a ban 

 on trawling, but we do support modifi- 

 cations in gear to try to reduce bycatch." 



EXTENSION FISH 



FLORIDA FISH EXCLUDER PATH OF ESCAPING FISH 



