NOAA has designed Turtle Excluder Device (TED) regulations to prevent turtles from being caught in shrimp trawl nets. With additional areas in the Gulf opening to shrimping on Friday, NOAA is continuing to help fishermen comply with the new device. NOAA’s Fisheries Service Office of Law Enforcement has put extra personnel along with NOAA’s Fisheries Service gear experts at the docks to inspect as many TEDs as possible.
Alan Risenhoover, acting director of NOAA’s Fisheries Service Office of Law Enforcement, said that more use of this device would minimizes violations at sea and helps to protect sea turtles. He added that the agency is increasing the presence of our enforcement personnel on the water with additional patrols, looking for the minority of shrimpers who fail to comply with the rules.
A TED is a grid of bars with an opening either at the top or the bottom of the trawl net. The devices allow small animals such as shrimp to pass through into the bag end of the trawl while larger animals, such as sea turtles and sharks, strike the grid bars and are ejected through the opening.
On July 11, NOAA issued NOVAs for violations involving TEDs to three vessels that allegedly had their device’s escape flaps tied shut, one vessel that allegedly had no TEDs installed on the two nets that were being used at the time the vessel was boarded, and five that allegedly had TEDs with escape openings that were too small and/or positioned at too steep an angle to allow turtles to escape.
