552 
Effectiveness of four industry- 
developed bycatch reduction 
devices in Louisiana's inshore waters 
Donna R. Rogers* 
Barton D. Rogers 
Janaka A. de Silva 
Vernon L. Wright 
School of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries 
Louisiana State University Agricultural Center 
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803-6202 
*Present address: Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences 
Coastal Fisheries Institute, Wetland Resources Bldg. 
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-7503 
E-mail address (for Donna Rogers): DRogers991@aol.com 
AbStraCt.-Trawling was conducted 
in three areas of coastal Louisiana dur- 
ing the two inshore shrimp seasons of 
1992 to evaluate the effectiveness of 
four industry-developed bycatch reduc- 
tion devices (BRD’s). Each BRD (Authe- 
ment-Ledet excluder, Cameron shooter, 
Lake Arthur excluder, and Eymard ac- 
celerator) was towed alongside a con- 
trol net 72 times; tows were equally di- 
vided between areas and seasons. The 
Authement-Ledet excluder, Cameron 
shooter, and Lake Arthur excluder 
BRD’s caught fewer fish (-36%, -51%, 
and -21%, respectively), but also fewer 
shrimp (-18%, -16%, and -24%) than 
corresponding control nets. Biomass 
catch differences were -42%, -33%, and 
-21% for fish and -14%, -14%, and 
-17% for shrimp. The Eymard accelera- 
tor caught 26% more fish numerically, 
19% less fish biomass, and more shrimp 
(38% in numbers, 26% in biomass) than 
control nets. Differences between 
catches obtained with BRD nets and 
those with control nets depended upon 
the organisms present in an area. Abun- 
dances and size distributions of many 
species differed between areas; thus 
BRD’s may have to be selected for the 
area where they are intended to be 
used. 
Manuscript accepted 28 January 1997. 
Fishery Bulletin 95:552-565 (1997). 
The inshore shrimping area of Loui- 
siana is typically the waters land- 
ward of the barrier islands and the 
general Gulf of Mexico shoreline. 
The Louisiana inshore shrimp fish- 
ery is managed as three geographic 
zones (Fig. 1) and has two inshore 
shrimping seasons. Brown shrimp, 
Penaeus aztecus, dominate spring 
catches, whereas white shrimp, P. 
setiferus, dominate fall catches, al- 
though both species are caught dur- 
ing each season. In 1992, nearly 101 
million kg of shrimp, valued at 
about $389 million, were landed 
commercially in the Gulf of Mexico 
(National Marine Fisheries Service, 
1993). From 1986 to 1989, 40% of 
the total commercial catch in Loui- 
siana was caught inshore (Baron- 
Mounce et al. 1 ). 
Although fishing gears and areas 
fished have varied, a survey in 1987 
(Keithly and Baron-Mounce 2 ) char- 
acterized Louisiana’s commercial 
inshore shrimpers as follows. The 
average vessel size was 10.2 m for 
full-time shrimpers, 6.1 m for part- 
time shrimpers. Smaller boats 
tended to be constructed of fiber- 
glass and powered by outboard mo- 
tors. About 75% to 80% of the com- 
mercial inshore shrimpers partici- 
pated in the fishery on a part-time 
basis. State law limited the size of 
each trawl to a headrope of 7.6 m 
length when two trawls were towed 
in inshore waters, except for Breton 
and Chandaleur Sounds. The in- 
shore shrimp fleet was not highly 
mobile between management zones; 
only about 10% of the full-time 
shrimpers with boats in the 20-30 
ft range and 2% of the part-time 
shrimpers fished in more than one 
zone during either season. The es- 
timated inshore shrimping effort in 
1987 by management zone was 18% 
(zone 1), 73% (zone 2), and 9% (zone 
3)(Keithly and Baron-Mounce 2 ). 
The otter trawl has been the pri- 
mary gear used by the inshore 
shrimp fishery in Louisiana (Keithly 
and Baron-Mounce 2 ), although but- 
terfly (wing) nets, cast nets, and 
skimmer (bay sweepers) nets have 
1 Baron-Mounce, E., W. Keithly, and K. J. 
Roberts. 1991. Shrimp facts. La. Sea 
Grant Coll. Prog., Communications Office, 
Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA, 
22 p. 
2 Keithly, W. R., Jr., and E. Baron-Mounce. 
1990. An economic assessment of the 
Louisiana shrimp fishery. Final report to 
NMFS NA88WC-H-MF179. Coastal Fish- 
eries Institute, Louisiana State Univ., Ba- 
ton Rouge, LA, 129 p. 
