Gary Graham, Texas Sea Grant’s Marine Fisheries specialist, check an experimental Burbank Bycatch Reduction Device with a spooker/turtle excluder device (TED) combination before installing it between the body of the net and the cod end or bag, where the catch accumulates. Photo: Tony Reisinger/Texas Sea Grant
by Texas Sea Grant staff
Two members of Texas Sea Grant’s extension staff set out to the offshore waters of Texas and Louisiana to test five new designs of bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) designed to reduce the capture of other species during shrimp trawls.
Tony Reisinger, Texas Sea Grant’s Coastal and Marine extension agent for Cameron County, installs a bycatch reduction device (BRD) on a shrimp trawl net. Photo: Gary Graham/Texas Sea Grant
Working under a grant from NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Gary Graham, Texas Sea Grant’s Marine Fisheries specialist, and Tony Reisinger, the program’s Cameron County marine agent, set out on the Miss Madeline for the month long testing of the new devices.
Texas Sea Grant, a non-academic research center within Texas A&M’s College of Geosciences, is a partnership uniting the resources of the federal government, the State of Texas and universities across the state to create knowledge, tools, products and services to improve the understanding, wise use and stewardship of Texas coastal and marine resources.. It is administered through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
BRDs are equipment placed in shrimp trawl nets to allow bycatch, non-target marine animals, to escape the nets. Non-targeted species are usually discarded during commercial and recreational fishing.
Federal regulations require commercial shrimp fishermen to use BRDs to reduce impacts on other species, but the devices also allow shrimp to escape the nets. Some models currently in use can reduce the shrimp catch by 10 percent or more, and shrimp lost from the net equals money lost for the fisherman.
The crew of the Miss Madeline hoist two trawl bags with their catch from the two starboard nets onto the deck. One nets includes an experimental BRD. Crewmembers (l-r) Apolinar “Polo” Monsibais, Miguel Hernandez and Luis Mosibais, and Texas Sea Grant Marine Fisheries specialist Gary Graham. Photo: Tony Reisinger/Texas Sea Grant
Modified BRD designs or new models that would reduce shrimp losses or are easier or less expensive to install must go through lengthy and expensive federal testing before being approved for use. The goal of Graham and Reisinger’s research was to pinpoint those that are most likely to meet the stringent testing protocols at the federal level.
“We’re trying to make the testing process more efficient,” Graham said. “It costs a lot of money to go through the federal testing process, and it would be beneficial if we could be more certain that gear submitted for certification are good candidates to be approved.”
The five designs that the duo tested came from a broad range of sources — NMFS, private industry and a university researcher. In some cases, the models were provided to them, and in others, Graham and Reisinger purchased or assembled the equipment. The more expensive models tested combined a BRD with a turtle excluder device (TED), which is another federally mandated piece of equipment shrimp trawlers must use.
Miss Madeline crew members Miguel Hernandez (l) and Texas Sea Grant’s Gary Graham sort the catch by hand to remove the heads from the shrimp and separate them from the bycatch. Photo: Tony Reisinger/Texas Sea Grant
Graham and Reisinger were aboard Anchor Seafood’s Miss Madeline for 50 days, including a two-week false start during which they were only able to test one design because of problems that required the boat to return to port.
Other BRDs in the study were tested over the course of a second, 36-day cruise.
The regular crew harvested shrimp in the usual configuration of four nets, two large cones on either side of the ship, but one of the outer nets, alternating between the port and starboard sides, had the gear being tested, and the catch from that net was landed separately from the rest of the harvest for Graham and Reisinger to tally and record.
Graham said only preliminary results are currently available. Statistical analysis of the trawl results have began, with several of the gear designs looking promising. One design could potentially be incorporated with other gear to further reduce bycatch.
“We think at least three or four of those gears look like they could be considered as potential candidates for further evaluation,” he said, adding that all five models showed little to no significant shrimp loss as a consequence of their use, an important consideration for shrimp fishermen who are already struggling to compete in a market that is dominated by imported, farm-raised shrimp.
Visitor Comments