m a r i n e advice 



Sea Grant Agents are Talking TEDs 



About this time every year, 

 commercial fishermen take to the 

 docks to tune up their trawlers for the 

 spring shrimp season. But this year, 

 there's a stir in the air, and it's more 

 than the prospect of steady work. 



Instead, it has to do with new turtle 

 excluder device (TED) regulations 

 passed by the National Marine Fisher- 

 ies Service (NMFS) in December. 



For the first time ever in inside 

 waters, many commercial watermen 

 are required to place a TED in their 

 shrimp nets to allow endangered 

 turtles to escape. But like other 

 complicated gear requirements that 

 frequently befuddle commercial 

 fishermen, the TED regulations are 

 difficult to understand. 



And as a result, rumors and 

 misinformation abound. 



Sea Grant marine agents Jim Bahen 

 and Bob Hines are trying to clear the 

 air and educate North Carolina's pro- 

 fessional watermen to the new TED 

 rules. 



Working one-on-one and with 

 groups, Bahen and Hines want to bring 

 fishermen into compliance with the law 

 to help them avoid citations and to 

 quickly address NMFS' concerns about 

 turtle casualties. Failure to comply is a 

 violation of the federal Endangered 

 Species Act. 



So far, most of the queries have 

 come from the northwest region of the 

 Pamlico Sound, but Bahen says he's 

 fielded questions from points all along 

 the coast and even out-of-state. 



"The questions will go through the 

 season," he predicts. "There are so 

 many people involved. There will be so 

 many rumors going around." 



Many commercial watermen are 

 still at a loss over how these new 

 regulations affect them and what 

 equipment they should fit into their 



nets, Bahen says. They want to know 

 where to buy TEDs, how much they 

 cost, whether they can build their own 

 and whether they can modify them. 



And there's also the larger question 

 of how this equipment will perform in 



Bob Hines 



North Carolina's inner waters, which 

 are shallower than offshore waters and 

 contain more TED-clogging grasses. 



In a recent round of NMFS work- 

 shops, North Carolina shrimpers said 

 they were concerned that TEDs haven't 

 been tested in the Core and Pamlico 

 sounds and that they would fail to work 

 in these inside waters. 



"They're saying that normally, 

 even without anything in their nets, 

 they have problems with algae and 

 grass," Bahen says. "Now the govern- 

 ment is asking them to put something 

 in their nets that fishermen say 

 shouldn't be there, gets clogged and 



isn't going to work." 



And fishermen are frustrated, 

 Hines says, because he can't say 

 definitively which model of TED 

 would work best in the Pamlico and 

 Core sounds. They can choose among 

 several models, but none have been 

 tested there and singled out as most 

 effective. 



Fishermen are going to have to 

 organize, test the TEDs themselves and 

 document trouble with the equipment, 

 if any, Hines says. Only then can they 

 apply to NMFS for a reprieve from 

 pulling TEDs in the area. Hines has 

 volunteered to organize the effort for 

 the watermen. 



"If there's going to be a catastro- 

 phe, rather than everyone running 

 around willy-nilly, they have to 

 document the problem," says Hines. 



Only in the algae-laden waters near 

 Sneads Ferry and designated Florida 

 waters still strewn with hurricane 

 debris has NMFS recently granted 

 fishermen an exemption for TEDs. 

 Otherwise, reprieves are rare. 



And any exemption granted for an 

 area is subject to constant re-evalua- 

 tion. Already, some fishermen have 

 said it's not worth the trouble, Hines 

 says. They'll target another catch. 

 Others have said they'll switch to 

 skimmer gear, which doesn't need a 

 TED but is limited to shallow water. 



Fishermen who intend to stay with 

 their gear can contact Bahen for guides 

 describing who must use the hardware. 

 Watermen who want to build their own 

 TEDs can get guidance from publica- 

 tion UNC-SG-BP-93-01, authored by 

 Bahen. For more information, contact 

 Bahen at 919/458-5498, or Hines at 

 919/247-4007. To order the free 

 publications, call Sea Grant at 919/ 

 515-2454. 



Jeannie Faris 



22 MARCH! APRIL 1993 



